The history and creation of The Bellona Foundation and its work in Russia has no equivalent among modern NGOs. From a small activist organisation founded in 1986, it has flowered into one of the most powerful environmental forces in Russia. There is no way to encapsulate its 20 years of achievements in almost insurmountable battles. These results have been won by Bellona’s focus on creating and motivating a diverse team of devoted and knowledgeable colleagues working in an area where conditions are not always safe or inviting for NGOs.

Bellona’s first foray into Russia’s nuclear problems was its 1990 protest agaist nuclear testing on the Russian Arctic Island of Novaya Zemlya. Aboard their boat the Genius, Bellona’s team, surrounded by the Soviet border patrol, protested the activities on the island. They also risked their lives and health to film oil spills in Usinsk in Northern Russia. The group had caught my attention, and I began working with them in 1994 to document nuclear hazards in Russia’s nuclear navy.

I was arrested for my participation in the creation of the report that documented these dangers, and charged with treason and espionage, even though we worked only with open sources of information. But again, Bellona’s team was undaunted and secured my freedom from pre-trial detention and my full acquittal in 2000. The nearly five year battle was long and difficult, but proved that a small, dedicated group of people could take on the Federal Security Service (FSB) and win. The spoils of the victory were not only my freedom and international resonance for Bellona. More importantly, it was a victory for millions of Russians who saw that they could free themselves from the heavy yoke of dictatorial secret police rule.

I was also privileged to accept the job of running the Environmental Rights Centre (ERC) Bellona in St. Petersburg.

Bellona was now a force to be reckoned with, and our work in nuclear safety issues, nuclear submarine dismantlement, and the protection of Russia’s environmental rights and access to truthful information about the ecosystems its population lives in have become benchmarks in environmental protection in Russia and guides for nations helping Russia to dismantle its Cold War arsenal.

I am in full agreement with Bellona’s president, my colleague and friend Frederic Hauge, when he repeats his credo that when you are conquering the Alps, it is easier to reach the peak than to climb down. Bellona is mastering these precarious descents because we have many other peaks to climb, and we understand that we must start from the bottom to summit them as well.

Bellona Russia has become, through its two offices in Russia, an organisation with unparalleled juridical, experiential and informational resources. The most important thing to keep this alive is not so much funding, but our expert team, its will, the confidence in the choices we make and the support of those who want to live in a cleaner, safer world.