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NOTE TO READERS: CHORNOBYL 20 YEARS AFTER -- Visit RFE/RL's website (http://www.rferl.org) to read our complete coverage of the 20th anniversary of the world's worst civilian nuclear-power disaster, including features on environmental and health concerns, the fates of the liquidators who worked to contain the damage, the political consequences of the accident, and more. RFE/RL will also have complete coverage of today's commemorations and links to our coverage in Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian.
...AS EU RESISTS BULLYING. Ferran Tarradellas Espuny, a spokesman for EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, said in Brussels on April 25 that Russia is welcome to sell energy supplies to whomever it wishes, news agencies reported. "In an open market, it's perfectly logical that suppliers look for different customers, [just as] we are looking for different suppliers. So, if they want to do so, they are free [to do so]," he said. Meanwhile, the Moscow-based daily "Kommersant" wrote on April 25 that Gazprom's attempts to bully the EU have not yielded the desired results, either by threatening to cut energy deliveries or by demanding concessions for the "privilege" of being allowed to invest in the Shtokman Field gas project. The daily noted that the European Commission's Mark Franco was in Moscow on April 24 and "paraphrased [Gazprom CEO] Miller's words on discrimination against Gazprom in Europe." According to the daily, Franco argued that any "attempts to restrict...European companies in the Russian market and make the sale of gas a political issue are not going to bring about any positive results." Franco added that "Gazprom should weigh the consequences of its actions more carefully." He argued that "setting a new price [for gas sales to Ukraine recently] was Russia's right, but the way it was done caused a lot of raised brows throughout Europe." PM
RUSSIAN-GERMAN TALKS TO OPEN IN TOMSK. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a large delegation were slated to arrive in Tomsk on April 26 for a two-day top-level political and economic meeting with President Putin and a similarly large Russian team that includes 19 ministers, news agencies reported. This is the eighth such gathering and is being held in Siberia, where many of Russia's natural resources are located (see "RFE/RL Newsline," December 2, 2005, and April 3 and 7, 2006, and End Note, "RFE/RL Newsline," January 17, 2006). Merkel's group is expected to include Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Economy Minister Michael Glos, Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, and other ministers. The key Russian firm taking part is Gazprom, which is expected to announce deals with BASF, E.ON, and some other German companies. Merkel seeks to develop business contacts with Russia while diversifying Germany's energy sources in the wake of the recent Ukrainian gas crisis. The Moscow daily "Nezavisimaya gazeta" wrote on April 24 that she will be businesslike in her dealings with Putin and not given to the bonhomie that characterized his relations with Gerhard Schroeder, Merkel's predecessor. "Vedomosti" noted on April 25, however, that Merkel is unlikely at this meeting to stress human-rights issues, as she did with Putin in January. PM
CHORNOBYL VETERANS ASK PUTIN FOR HELP. Praskovya Britskaya of the Moscow Union of Invalids of Chornobyl appealed to President Putin at a Kremlin ceremony on April 25 to create a treatment center for the survivors of the cleanup effort exactly 20 years ago, Reuters reported. She said in remarks addressed to the president that "we sent a draft proposal to the government and to you but never received an answer." Putin gave out medals to the survivors at the ceremony. He stressed their courage in responding to what he called "one of the largest manmade disasters of the 20th century," Interfax reported. He added that "even lacking experience in dealing with such disasters, you and your colleagues worked out a strategy and made decisions swiftly, sometimes relying only on your own knowledge and experience." On April 26, former Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov told Interfax that the Soviet government of the time did all that it could to respond to the disaster. He argued that "we did everything possible, based on the knowledge we possessed and using the scientific, organizational, and technical means available to us then." Ryzhkov now represents Belgorod Oblast in the Federation Council. PM
Since 1986, learning the truth about the world's worst nuclear disaster has been more than a humanitarian and a health issue; it has also been a political challenge. The Chornobyl explosion is often linked to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. It also had dramatic political consequences in the republics of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.
The Chornobyl blast proved to be a crucial test for the Soviet government's new policy of glasnost, or openness -- one that it failed in horrific fashion. Citizens were denied accurate information on the danger and scale of what happened not only in the crucial first days and weeks after the accident, but also in subsequent years.
For example, it emerged only in 1989 that nearly one-quarter of Belarus, which absorbed some 60 percent of the Chornobyl fallout, was significantly contaminated.
Former Ukrainian diplomat Yuriy Shcherbak wrote a documentary book on the Chornobyl accident as early as 1987, in an attempt to provide readers with more insight than they could get from the government. Shcherbak told RFE/RL in a recent interview that the suppression of accurate information about Chornobyl by the Gorbachev-era Soviet government helped increase the divide between the state and Soviet society.
"The mendacious propaganda, the lack of reliable information [about Chornobyl] had affected millions of people, particularly in Ukraine, to such an extent that those people lost the rest of their faith in what Gorbachev was saying about perestroika, glasnost, and so on," Shcherbak said.
On the Ukrainian political scene, the catastrophe also launched a new type of realpolitik. Shcherbak asserts that the Chornobyl catastrophe was largely responsible for the readiness with which the Ukrainian parliament signed on to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty after gaining independence. The decision effectively obliged the fledgling state to destroy or return to Russia all nuclear weapons on its territory.
Shcherbak believes that since the closure of the plant's last reactor in 2000, Chornobyl has ceased to be a major political issue in Ukraine, but he does believe it will continue to impact government decisions in the nuclear-energy sphere. He said Ukraine should never forget the potential hazards of operating its 15 nuclear reactors at four power plants. "We should proceed from the premise that we will have to live side by side with risk. We are taking a risk. And we should be taking a reasonable risk, not the one that might lead, God forbid, to a new Chornobyl-type catastrophe. We should enhance the safety of reactors," Shcherbak said.
Belarus does not have any nuclear power plants and is not planning to build any in the near future. The Chornobyl aftermath seems to persist in the country not only as a grave environmental issue but also a political one.
Viktor Ivashkevich, deputy head of the opposition Belarusian Popular Front, has argued that the authoritarian regime of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka treats Chornobyl-related issues in pretty much the same way the Soviet-era government did 20 years ago, that the "authorities show no consideration whatsoever for people, hide all problems, and broadcast mendacious propaganda, while the population is shrinking."
Belarus adopted a long-term program for dealing with the Chornobyl consequences in 1990. Ivashkevich said the Lukashenka government has backed down on some important measures envisioned by that program. In particular, Ivashkevich said the government abolished checks for the radioactivity of food products at most shops and markets, except for some major food retailers. But he doesn't believe the checks stopped because there was nothing to find.
"Food products are grown in areas where radioactivity exceeds 15 curies per square kilometer. Then these contaminated products are mixed with pure ones to obtain products of medium purity, and subsequently they are shipped to all of Belarus," he noted.
Since 1989, the Belarusian opposition has managed to organize a "Chornobyl Way" march almost every year. Participants march to commemorate the Chornobyl anniversary and raise public awareness about unresolved problems related to the disaster. Although many of these marches have been dispersed or otherwise thwarted by police, another Chornobyl Way march is expected in Minsk this year on 26 April.
Vladimir Chuprov, a chief nuclear-energy expert at Greenpeace Russia, believes the lasting consequences of Chornobyl in Russia are evident mainly in the environmental and social spheres. Chuprov said recent demonstrations in Russia organized by people concerned with the environmental situation of Lake Baikal are a result of the higher environmental awareness in the country following the Chornobyl disaster. He noted that the protests over the state of the lake could also have political consequences.
"People come to demonstrate not with economic demands, but ecological ones," he said. "It is an indicator that the population is beginning to amass discontent that may result in political passions."
Popular discontent and ecological demands already led to political demonstrations in Kazakhstan in 1986, in Armenia in 1988, and in Georgia in 1989. A new wave of demonstrations organized around the same lines could have resonance in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.
NOTE TO READERS: CHORNOBYL 20 YEARS AFTER -- Visit RFE/RL's website (http://www.rferl.org) to read our complete coverage of the 20th anniversary of the world's worst civilian nuclear-power disaster, including features on environmental and health concerns, the fates of the liquidators who worked to contain the damage, the political consequences of the accident, and more. RFE/RL will also have complete coverage of today's commemorations and links to our coverage in Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian.
BELARUS, UKRAINE MARK 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF CHORNOBYL DISASTER. Hundreds of people filed shortly after midnight on April 26 through the streets of Slavutych, the Ukrainian town built to house Chornobyl plant workers after the world's worst civilian nuclear accident on April 26, 1986, Ukrainian and world agencies reported. Later the same day in Kyiv, the Verkhovna Rada elected in 2002 held its last session devoted to a hearing on the Chornobyl aftermath. In Homel on April 25, the Belarusian opposition held a conference of scientists, lawyers, and political activists on the Chornobyl aftermath. In the afternoon of April 26, the opposition is to stage a Chornobyl Way demonstration in Minsk, at which opposition leader Alyaksandr Milinkevich is expected to publicize the Homel conference's conclusions and announce the creation of a broad pro-democracy movement in Belarus. JM
UKRAINIAN COURT CONFIRMS PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION RESULTS. The Supreme Administrative Court on April 25 rejected a complaint by four Ukrainian political blocs and parties claiming that the Central Election Commission (TsVK) violated a legal procedure in announcing results of the March 26 parliamentary elections earlier this month (see "RFE/RL Newsline," April 11, 2006), Ukrainian media reported. The decision effectively opens the way for the TsVK to have the election results validated by publishing them in two state-sponsored periodicals, "Holos Ukrayiny" and "Uryadovyy kurer." In the March 26 polls, the Party of Regions won 32.14 percent of the vote, the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc 22.29 percent, Our Ukraine 13.95 percent, the Socialist Party 5.69 percent, and the Communist Party 3.66 percent. In the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada, the Party of Regions will have 186 seats, the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc 129, Our Ukraine 81, the Socialists 33, and the Communists 21. JM
Since 1986, learning the truth about the world's worst nuclear disaster has been more than a humanitarian and a health issue; it has also been a political challenge. The Chornobyl explosion is often linked to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. It also had dramatic political consequences in the republics of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.
The Chornobyl blast proved to be a crucial test for the Soviet government's new policy of glasnost, or openness -- one that it failed in horrific fashion. Citizens were denied accurate information on the danger and scale of what happened not only in the crucial first days and weeks after the accident, but also in subsequent years.
For example, it emerged only in 1989 that nearly one-quarter of Belarus, which absorbed some 60 percent of the Chornobyl fallout, was significantly contaminated.
Former Ukrainian diplomat Yuriy Shcherbak wrote a documentary book on the Chornobyl accident as early as 1987, in an attempt to provide readers with more insight than they could get from the government. Shcherbak told RFE/RL in a recent interview that the suppression of accurate information about Chornobyl by the Gorbachev-era Soviet government helped increase the divide between the state and Soviet society.
"The mendacious propaganda, the lack of reliable information [about Chornobyl] had affected millions of people, particularly in Ukraine, to such an extent that those people lost the rest of their faith in what Gorbachev was saying about perestroika, glasnost, and so on," Shcherbak said.
On the Ukrainian political scene, the catastrophe also launched a new type of realpolitik. Shcherbak asserts that the Chornobyl catastrophe was largely responsible for the readiness with which the Ukrainian parliament signed on to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty after gaining independence. The decision effectively obliged the fledgling state to destroy or return to Russia all nuclear weapons on its territory.
Shcherbak believes that since the closure of the plant's last reactor in 2000, Chornobyl has ceased to be a major political issue in Ukraine, but he does believe it will continue to impact government decisions in the nuclear-energy sphere. He said Ukraine should never forget the potential hazards of operating its 15 nuclear reactors at four power plants. "We should proceed from the premise that we will have to live side by side with risk. We are taking a risk. And we should be taking a reasonable risk, not the one that might lead, God forbid, to a new Chornobyl-type catastrophe. We should enhance the safety of reactors," Shcherbak said.
Belarus does not have any nuclear power plants and is not planning to build any in the near future. The Chornobyl aftermath seems to persist in the country not only as a grave environmental issue but also a political one.
Viktor Ivashkevich, deputy head of the opposition Belarusian Popular Front, has argued that the authoritarian regime of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka treats Chornobyl-related issues in pretty much the same way the Soviet-era government did 20 years ago, that the "authorities show no consideration whatsoever for people, hide all problems, and broadcast mendacious propaganda, while the population is shrinking."
Belarus adopted a long-term program for dealing with the Chornobyl consequences in 1990. Ivashkevich said the Lukashenka government has backed down on some important measures envisioned by that program. In particular, Ivashkevich said the government abolished checks for the radioactivity of food products at most shops and markets, except for some major food retailers. But he doesn't believe the checks stopped because there was nothing to find.
"Food products are grown in areas where radioactivity exceeds 15 curies per square kilometer. Then these contaminated products are mixed with pure ones to obtain products of medium purity, and subsequently they are shipped to all of Belarus," he noted.
Since 1989, the Belarusian opposition has managed to organize a "Chornobyl Way" march almost every year. Participants march to commemorate the Chornobyl anniversary and raise public awareness about unresolved problems related to the disaster. Although many of these marches have been dispersed or otherwise thwarted by police, another Chornobyl Way march is expected in Minsk this year on 26 April.
Vladimir Chuprov, a chief nuclear-energy expert at Greenpeace Russia, believes the lasting consequences of Chornobyl in Russia are evident mainly in the environmental and social spheres. Chuprov said recent demonstrations in Russia organized by people concerned with the environmental situation of Lake Baikal are a result of the higher environmental awareness in the country following the Chornobyl disaster. He noted that the protests over the state of the lake could also have political consequences.
"People come to demonstrate not with economic demands, but ecological ones," he said. "It is an indicator that the population is beginning to amass discontent that may result in political passions."
Popular discontent and ecological demands already led to political demonstrations in Kazakhstan in 1986, in Armenia in 1988, and in Georgia in 1989. A new wave of demonstrations organized around the same lines could have resonance in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.