From Green Right Now Reports
Environmentalists in the U.S. often face derision and debate as they work to save species and protect the natural environment. But raising the ire of authorities in Russia can carries bigger penalties.
Lake Baikal (Photo: Pacific Environment.)
Last week, police officers from the regional offices of Internal Affairs virtually shut down the office of an environmental watchdog group by searching its office and confiscating 12 computers and a web server. The authorities, who did not have warrants, told members of Baikal Environmental Wave that they were looking for pirated software and fire safety regulations. But when presented with licenses for the software, they still confiscated computers with help from the local prosecutors office, according to accounts from the environmentalists.
Members of the BEW group believe the raid was staged to impede their efforts to protect Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest freshwater lake, which also contains 20 percent of the earth’s freshwater.
The officers, believed to be from the Internal Affairs Consumer Affairs and Anti-Extremism sections, denied through a spokesman that the raid was politically motivated.
Lake Baikal has suffered from decades of pollution from the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill, which had been shutdown in 2008. Last week, however, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that the mill will be allowed to reopen.
The timing of the raid coinciding with the mill’s impending reopening has left the environmentalists suspicious. “It is clear that the stated reason for investigating Baikal Environmental Wave was just an excuse,” Marina Rikhvanova told U.S. environmentalists with the Pacific Environment, a San Francisco-based non-profit that works to protect Pacific rim resources. “The real reason for taking our computers is to paralyze our organization and keep us from protesting the January 18 decision to reopen the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill.”
According to Pacific Environment, the paper mill, which has been testing equipment for its reopening is already contaminating aquifers with effluent.
The mill’s reopening is an effort to bring jobs to the town of Baikalsk.