May 15 , 2000


Collateral Damage
BY JOHN PILGER
Ten years of sanctions in Iraq

Under Siege
BY ANTHONY ARNOVE
Hans von Sponeck steps down

The IMF: Kill It or Fix It?
BY G. PASCAL ZACHARY

How to Fix the IMF
BY DAVID MOBERG
First, do no harm

Water Fallout
BY JIM SHULTZ
Bolivians battle globalization

ICANN: Secret government of the Internet?
BY STEVEN HILL
The fight over who will control the Web

The Big Payback
BY SALIM MUWAKKIL
African-Americans renew the call for reparations


News & Views

Editorial
BY JASON VEST
Capital crimes

Appall-O-Meter
BY DAVID FUTRELLE

A Terry Laban Cartoon

No Justice for Janitors
BY DAVID BACON
L.A. workers take the first step toward a nationwide strike

Wal-Martyrs
BY KARI LYDERSEN
Unionizing means job cuts at the world's largest retailer

Fishy Business
BY JEFF SHAW
Washington State is failing to protect endangered salmon

Wasted
BY JEFF ST. CLAIR
Russia moves ahead with shady nuclear scheme

Profile
BY DAVID MOBERG
Luis Alfonso Velasquez: Wanted man


Culture

The Culture Vultures
BY LAURA BRAHM
BOOKS: Art as instrument of foreign policy

Left in the Dust
BY TED KLEINE
BOOKS: A HIstory of the Small & the Invisible

Queer Godfather
BY DOUG IRELAND
BOOKS: Martin Duberman, intellectual

No Jacket Required
BY JOSHUA ROTHKOPF
FILM: American Psycho

Rememberance of Things Trashed
BY CALEB MASON

 

Wasted

By Jeffrey St. Clair

Back in October, In These Times reported on a scheme hatched by the Russian nuclear agency to import spent nuclear waste from commercial reactors in Europe and Japan for storage in the Russian outback (see "Hot Property, Cold Cash," October 17). This story finally has grabbed the attention of the national press. On April 12, the Boston Globe reported that Russian Minister of Atomic Energy Yevgeny Adamov is proceeding with plans to import 20,000 tons of radioactive waste for storage and eventual recycling at the Mayak nuclear facility in the Ural Mountains.

Adamov boasted that the deal would generate more than $21 billion over the next 10 years, a figure nearly equal to the Russia's entire 1999 budget. "The deal is extremely beneficial for the ministry," Adamov said, "and we are intending to carry it out."

The main stumbling block is a 1992 law passed by the Duma that prohibits Adamov's agency from importing nuclear waste from countries outside the former Eastern Bloc. But Adamov claims to have the blessing of new Russian President Vladimir Putin and, according to Russian greens, has vowed to overturn the ban in the upcoming legislative session. Last year, Adamov was accused of offering Russian legislators a variety of bribes for their votes, including cash, trips to France and prostitutes.

Adamov never enjoyed a particularly close relationship with the Yeltsin government's inner circle. But he and Putin have been close since the president's days in the KGB. Russian greens rightly fear that the Putin/Adamov alliance will prove dangerous to both the environment and environmentalists.

Under Putin, the FSB - the KGB's successor - has interrogated and locked up several anti-nuclear organizers on trumped-up drug charges, or the absurd pretext that they are aligned with Chechen separatists. And Putin's state prosecutors have continued to harass Alexander Nikitin, the nuclear whistleblower acquitted of violating Russian secrecy laws in December. The new crackdowns have given a chilling context to Putin's vow to lead the country through "the dictatorship of law."

Jeffrey St. Clair is a contributing editor of In These Times.

 

 


In These Times © 2000
Vol. 24, No. 12