Norwegian environmentalists will come in handy at home – Newspaper Kommersant No. 68 (7513) dated 04/19/2023

The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation recognized the activities of the Norwegian NGO Miljostiftelsen Bellona as undesirable in Russia. We are talking about a well-known international environmental organization, whose namesake foundations in St. Petersburg and Murmansk were included in the register of foreign agents (in 2017 and 2015, respectively) and later liquidated. The supervisory authority considered that Bellona’s activities are aimed at “undermining the Russian economy” and threatening “the foundations of the constitutional order.” Previously, environmentalists closely cooperated with Rosatom, but they have not been conducting active projects in Russia for about a year, experts say. In Bellona, ​​the decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office is associated with the desire of the authorities to hide environmental problems in the country.

The press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that Miljostiftelsen Bellona (Bellona Environmental Foundation, Bellona Environmental Association) was recognized as an undesirable organization in Russia. We are talking about an NPO registered in Norway, follows from the explanations of the supervisory authority, whose activities the prosecutors considered aimed at “undermining the Russian economy”, “discrediting the ongoing domestic and foreign policy” and threatening the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation. Bellona was blamed for financing NGO-foreign agents, attempts to “influence Russian legislation in order to change it” and the formation of public opinion about the “failure of Russian environmental policy.” Prosecutors sent information about this to the Ministry of Justice.

Bellona was one of the most famous environmental organizations in Russia (along with Greenpeace Russia and the World Wildlife Fund, the latter is recognized as a foreign agent). Her activities in the country were mainly devoted to the safe storage of radioactive waste at former naval bases on the Kola Peninsula and the disposal of more than 120 decommissioned nuclear submarines in the Russian Arctic. In 1995, the head of Bellona in Russia, Alexander Nikitin, was accused of disclosing state secrets for his report “The Northern Fleet: the potential risk of radioactive contamination of the region.” In 2000, by decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the charges against him were dropped. This is the only case in Russia when the defendant under this article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was acquitted.

Representatives of Bellona were members of the public council of the state corporation Rosatom. For example, in November 2013, at a meeting of the council chaired by the then CEO of Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, the concept of a federal program to ensure nuclear and radiation safety for 2016–2020 was discussed. Representatives of Bellona then proposed the creation of a working group for interaction with public organizations “in terms of placing facilities for the final isolation” of radioactive waste, according to the website of the environmental fund. It should be noted that Bellona has published over 100 reports in Russia, including 30 documents on nuclear safety.

Bellona-Murmansk was recognized as a foreign agent in 2015, and the fund in St. Petersburg – in 2017. After the start of a special military operation, the foundation announced that it was curtailing work in Russia and moving to an office in Vilnius. There have been no active projects and activities in Russia for more than a year, says one of the former employees of Bellona. This “Kommersant” was confirmed by a member of the public council at Rosatom, Victoria Markova. However, materials about Russia continue to be published on the Foundation’s website. For example, in February 2023, Bellona published an article about “nine ways to destroy Russia’s nature under the pretext of fighting sanctions,” and in March 2023, about the problems of specially protected natural areas. Ms. Markova notes that earlier, within the framework of the Rosatom council, Bellona representatives dealt with, for example, the problems of the Krasny Bor toxic waste landfill in the Leningrad Region: “They objectively dealt with the topic, worked constructively and usefully.”

Bellona said the foundation has been “disclosing and documenting the massive environmental problems” of the USSR and Russia since 1989, estimating the organization’s total funding raised to address the problems of nuclear and radiation waste, as well as decommissioned nuclear submarines, at about $4 billion. The founder of Bellona, ​​Frederic Hauge, said on the organization’s website that citizens of the Russian Federation had previously been subjected to pressure for working for the fund, and “the new status translates any cooperation with the organization into the sphere of criminal activity.”

Mr. Hauge called the decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office an attempt to disrupt the work of offices in Vilnius and Oslo.

“Obviously, the Russian authorities want to avoid leaking information about how badly they are coping with environmental problems in the country,” he said. Mr. Hauge stressed that the organization will continue to deal with environmental problems in Russia. According to SPARK, the environmental legal center “Bellona” in St. Petersburg was liquidated on April 11, 2023, and “Bellona-Murmansk” – in 2015.

Alexander Voronov