UPDATE: The criminal case against the environmentalists was closed in October, 2003

Several secret police operatives came abruptly. Three FSB officers entered the room, while the fourth stayed in the doorway. That is how a traditional search starts.

The officers said that they were going to search the office of the Baikal Environmental Wave, and everybody had to gather in one room. Only the leaders of the Wave were allowed to watch the operation.

The formal motive of the search was the fact that Baikal Wave carried out a project in official cooperation with geologists from the Sosnovgeos research organization. The project was to create a map of radioactive contamination around the Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical Combine, or AECC.

"There are reasons to believe, that a map of uranium content in the water near AECC, of a scale of 1:50000 and stamped classified can be found in the office of the Irkutsk-based Baikal Environmental Wave," reads the search warrant signed by FSB major Krizhanovsky.

"It can be found", wrote Krizhanovsky… But when Bellona correspondent read the copy of the search report, it turned out that no classified document was found in the office.

The Baikal Wave co-chairperson, Marina Rikhvanova told Bellona Web that during the search the FSB-men seized two maps. One depicts the territories around AECC, and another shows agricultural activities in the Shelekhovo region. The second map had been earlier publicly displayed at an official exhibition, and was given to the environmentalists as a present, after the exhibition finished. The FSB confiscated also aerial-photos, written off as obsolete by a local research institute, and 15 computer hard drives out of 18.

"Seizure of the hard drives had no sense, as we had no electronic versions of these maps on them. And I can add, the maps contained no information on how the buildings of the plant were situated and nothing about AECC's precise borders," the environmentalists said. The most frightening was that the FSB seized also the full list of volunteers of the organization.

But the next day the local FSB press-service told Bellona Web in a telephone interview that six or seven computers would be returned to the environmentalists soon. They claimed, they had nothing against the environmentalists, but the criminal case on disclosure of state secrets had been started against the geologists from Sosnovgeos. The FSB stressed the information that secret police accused the environmentalists was inaccurate.

Though FSB claimed there were no charges against the environmentalists, a definite intention to accuse them was seen clearly. It is enough to say that soon after FSB's raid resulted in nothing interesting, tax authorities visited the office.

What secret was revealed?
The Federal Security Service, successor to the infamous KGB, says that topographic basis of the maps is secret. The maps showing uranium contamination were sent in March, 2002 by the Baikal Wave environmentalists to the state organizations to draw their attention to radiation problems of Irkutsk county.

FSB claimed, resolution of the maps was too high, 500 meters. Secret police did not take into consideration that the maps were made without the coordinate grid, while this circumstance immediately declassifies the map, and that the topographical basis of the maps was made as long ago as in 1974.

On November 22nd, the FSB launched a criminal case, saying that a disclosure of state secrets took place (article 283, part 1 of the Russian Criminal Code).

The first to laugh at these FSB accusations was Russian cosmonaut Sergey Krichevsky, who said that all the coordinates to within one meter can be absolutely legally learned from the earth orbit. The same was mentioned by the famous environmentalist Alexander Nikitin. "We should decide, what really harms the state, and what really doesn't," he said.

The first attempt in such malpractice was made by the FSB and police forces in Novosibirsk. They seized a GPS device from Sergey Paschenko, director of an NGO the Scientists of Siberia for Global Responsibility. Global Positioning System, or GPS, device shows coordinates of locations according to satellites. The seizure was explained by confused references to a law, adopted in 1996, stipulating that geographical coordinates can not be defined with inaccuracy less than of 30 meters. Otherwise, the coordinates become allegedly state secret. Official permission to use GPS, issued by the State Communication Regulatory for Paschenko was said to be a mistake. Thus, the departments, obligated to care for people's safety and security, hampered environmentalists to complete a map of radioactive contamination, while precision of such map is very important for people living in the area rendered harmful.

Secrecy of coordinates more accurate than 30 meters seems today to be an anachronism. Everybody can find photos of Angarsk, Seversk, Ozersk and Sarov, with resolution of 16 meters and better in the Internet.

Yulia Zhilina, co-chairperson of the Baikal Environmental Wave, President of the Center for Russian Ecological Policy Alexey Yablokov (left from Yulia) and the project director of Greenpeace-Russia Ivan Blokov, at a press-conference in Moscow after FSB raided the office of the Siberian organization.

Bellona archive

There were four maps with a resolution of 1:50000, attached to the scientific report of the Sosnovgeos geologists, where combine's location was roughly outlined.

"This map showed direction of the underground waters and the places we sampled earth to examine percentage of uranium. The scale was chosen by geologists just to show the places of sampling. We copied maps for all the state organizations, responsible for radioactive safety and control. The results of the research were discussed at the Irkutsk county Radio-Ecological Board, where nobody raised the question that the information we've prepared for the state bodies and organizations could be secret… It's rather strange that no search was made at the offices of organizations, which received copies of our allegedly secret maps," Yulia adds.

It seems to be not a pure coincidence that the search was carried out in the office of the Wave in the end of November. Let's try to think about the causes of these coincidences.

Local plant director composed letter to FSB
Victor Chopin is director of the abovementioned Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical Combine, or AECC. The combine, which belongs to Ministry for Nuclear Energy, produces colourless and water-insoluble uranium hexafluoride, used in its gaseous state in separating uranium 235 from uranium. The 235 isotope is used in atomic and hydrogen bombs and as a fuel in nuclear reactors.

Victor Chopin, as some sources claim, was the person who composed a letter to the FSB, which caused the search in the respectable environmental organization. If the letter was Chopin's piece, what was his motive then?

AECC, like any other Russian nuclear cycle industry, is guilty for contamination of great amounts of water and earth. Though officials say its radioactivity does not exceed the legitimate levels, nobody doubts that contamination exists and it exceeds background radiation. The results of the report might displease Chopin. The report prepared by Siberian envirogroups and sent to County administration reads, radionuclides keep on accumulating in soils around the combine and may account for poor health of people living near by.

But representative of AECC told Bellona web, that combine had not initiated the FSB operation, as they did not want a scandal to be noised about. If it's so, who's the initiator?

Co-chairpersons of the Baikal Environmental Wave, Marina Rikhvanova (left) and Jennie Sutton.

Bellona archive

The environmentalists said required by the law environmental impact study of the project had not been carried out. Despite of the search, the hearing was held, and the Wave experts demonstrated documents saved in their home computers.

"We believe the search could be connected with Yukos, while our Angarsk combine project had finished ten months ago, but FSB came to our office right before the hearing," Marina Rikhvanova, co-chairperson of the Baikal Wave says.

FSB representatives reject any connection between the search and the hearing:

"Yes, the results of their report have really been sent to different administrative bodies several months ago. But right at the moment we were occupied with other cases. The search and some events in life of this organization simply coincided."

Only a few days after the search, the chairman of the International Socio-Ecological Union, Svet Zabelin, initiated a meeting between Marina Rikhvanova and the Yukos press service. The oil company press secretary claimed that Yukos had not inspired the FSB come to the Wave's office, and it was Yukos, whom the FSB was permanently vexing. Rikhvanova advised Yukos to meet the requirements of the environmental legislation, and to participate in the public hearings. The press-service did not mind. Will the local managers in Irkutsk take the advice? It remains to be seen.

FSB wants to embroil scientists with civic activists?
The FSB seems to be trying to make a gap between scientists and the environmentalists, while saying they have no charges against the Wave, but some evidences against the geologists.

"They are simply going to break the contacts between environmentalists and academic experts," Natalia Linevich from the St Petersburg Association of Naturalists said.

Natalia Linevich knows Irkutsk well. She worked in the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences and prepared a report for Sosnovgeology, a State Institute, which established Sosnovgeos. During her studies in Irkutsk Natalia used the same maps, which the FSB says contain state secrets.

"I know the scientists from Irkutsk, and I'm absolutely sure FSB's accusations have no grounds. But the attempt to split the relations between NGOs and people of science causes anxiety and apprehension. Some people are saying now, secret police have made a fool of themselves, while they're withdrawing charges against environmentalists. But we shouldn't forget that the geologists are being accused. Irkutsk is a city of scientists, and even if the FSB leaves geologists alone, the scientists will be suspicious, when NGOs propose mutual projects," she says.

Jennie Sutton, the Baikal Wave co-chairperson, told Bellona Web that during the first questioning at the FSB Marina Rikhvanova had no lawyer, because her lawyer came to the questioning with the geologists. And the FSB told her that it is impossible that the same person defends both the witnesses and the accused.

The environmentalists obeyed, though this demand was illegal. Bellona Web correspondent asked Ivan Pavlov, the lawyer of Alexander Nikitin and Grigory Pasko to comment on the situation.

"Russian Criminal Procedure Code stipulates that the same person cannot defend both the suspect and the accused only if their interests are in conflict. There is not a word about witnesses. And even if geologists or environmentalists are officially charged, their interests wouldn't clash. Any antagonisms between them are being created by the FSB. The same person can defend both the environmentalists and the geologists," he said.

Yulia Zhilina went to the FSB with another lawyer. There were no more summons, but the FSB officer told Yulia that there would be a new questioning, pertaining to the information disseminated by the Wave. Jennie Sutton told Bellona Web that the geologists, Vsevolod Medvedev and Leonid Korshunov, were also questioned.

"But I wouldn't say, our relations became worse after that," she said.

Spy article written beforehand
Two days before the search, Irkutsk local newspaper SM-Number One received from one of its authors connected with the FSB an article, which was accusing the Wave for espionage. The article was published right after the search with a title Green Spies Undermine the Economy of the Angara Region.

"The FSB knew they would find secret maps. And they formed public opinion in advance," Jennie Sutton says. "But they failed and people keep on supporting us, the county administration invites us to discuss the Baikal environmental situation."

"Several dubious environmental organizations, supported from abroad, are working in Irkutsk county," claimed Mikhail Kilishkin, the head of the FSB branch of the city of Angarsk, in the article published in SM-Number One.

"Environmental questions are the legal cover-up of the enemy's intelligence activities," he said.

Kilishkin was sure that the Wave exaggerated radioactive danger of the Angarsk combine, intending to stop this industry. He also claimed that the activities of the environmentalists were aimed at acquiring Russian technology of uranium isotope separation. The Western intelligence services are tending to get this technology by espionage, while China bought it legally, he stressed.

"Before the perestroika, about four million people secured secrecy," said Kilishkin his main idea at the end of the article.

That seems to be the main hope of the secret police, to bring back the Soviet era with enormously huge secret police institutions. Another feature of the Soviet time was information vacuum. Today the Wave activists feel that there is a reason why mass media do not let them defend themselves, whereas articles accusing the environmentalists of espionage are being eagerly published.

Environmentalists fill pressure not only in such insulting articles. Jennie Sutton told Bellona Web her flat was robbed and her car was hijacked. At present, Irkutsk police have found neither the car nor the thieves.

What do colleagues think
Bellona Web correspondent asked Vsevolod Medvedev, how his colleagues react at the accusations made by the FSB. What say the scientists about this?

"I haven't seen them all. But the people, whom I meet, support me completely. There was an inquiry, and my presence was requested. I was questioned as a witness. The lawyer, found for me by the Baikal Wave, helped me in reading the record of the questioning. He told me that some entries in the record may be forged."

Leonid Korshunov is the second geologist, who was called by the FSB for an inquiry. He answered the questions of investigators without any lawyer being present. But speaking with Bellona Web, he mentioned he was going to find a lawyer and hopes the environmentalists would help him.

"During the questioning they were typing my answers into computer taking me on my word. When I was rereading the record, I made several minor changes. But we are afraid investigators are simply lulling us, leading us to feel a false sense of safety, causing us to be less on guard and alerted. They are very polite, courteous, very benevolent. And it confuses us," he said.

It seems the FSB wants to get from geologists testimonies against themselves and the environmentalists. And it is very important that lawyers read record very attentively, so that the FSB could put nothing into the mouth of the witnesses, who may become the accused tomorrow.

"I had the same experience in my case. Even a comma may be significant. One of investigators in my case, Igor Maximenko, erased once a word in the questioning record. And the sense of the phrase changed," Alexander Nikitin said to Bellona Web.

Nikitin won his case in 2000. He was accused of high treason and divulging of state secrets for co-authoring Bellona's report on radioactive waste problems in the Russian Northern Fleet. The FSB failed to make him a spy. He was acquitted by the Supreme Court Presidium. The case of the Baikal Environmental Wave seems to be winding up before it started. The secret police can hardly prove that the environmentalists or their partners from Sosnovgeos are guilty of disclosure of classified information. It seems that the FSB will close the case before trial.

Now all the computers have been given back to the environmentalists. But the hard drives returned seem to have some damages. The Baikal Wave is going to file a suit against FSB on the results of the search.

"We'll keep on standing for our dignity and public reputation, and defending the geologists from Sosnovgeos, with whom we made that report," one of the recent Baikal Wave presser claims.

Inside the Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical Combine. The isotope separation plant.

www.aecc.ru

AECC had been a secret site until mid 1990s. As a radiation hazardous enterprise liable to the state control it was first mentioned in a state report 1996. In 1995, AECC's annual conversion capacity was 18,700 MT of uranium. AECC produces LEU using centrifuge technology, with an annual capacity of two million SWU. The combine exports enriched uranium to several countries, including China and North Korea. The combine's employees are participating in the construction of a gas centrifuge plant in China.

AECC is also involved in civilian production. It manufactures individual dosimeter systems; professional gamma radiation dosimeters; extra pure lithium, barium, calcium and lanthanum fluorides; and optical and scintillating fluoride mono crystals. AECC employs approximately 6,500 people. In the market of the Western Europe, AECC is represented by Klaus F. Meyer GmbH.

The combine represents a lot of hazards, including possible radioactivity contamination of the adjacent area — the city of Angarsk with 300,000 population and country houses, which are situated nearby.

The research carried out in 2001 by the Baikal Environmental Wave in cooperation with the geologists from the Sosnovgeos research institute uncovered moderate uranium contamination of the premises neighbouring to the combine.

Amount of uranium in the water reservoirs exceeds the regional background radiation 10 folds, at the territory stretching from the AECC site to the Angara River, which flows North West from Lake Baikal to the Yenisei River. This uranium amount varies from 160 to 475x10^-8 grams per litter. The amount of radioactive waste stored at AECC totals to 803.6 tonne with the activity of 123.9 GBk, but its radionuclide content is unknown.