29 March 2024, Friday, 12:24
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Independent ecologists prevented from joining public consultations on nuclear power plant, Russian expert detained

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At the event experts tired to disseminate documents with criticism of the idea of a nuclear power plant construction in Belarus.

Today so-called “public consultations” on the topic of construction of a nuclear power stating in Belarus are held in the town of Astravets.

According to the plan of the public hearings, registration of the participants should have taken place from 10 a.m. to the noon. Interested representatives of the public were to arrive by that time.

At 10.10 a.m. the hall where the consultations were to open, was filled to capacity in an orderly manner. Strangely enough represenatt8ives of “labour collectives” were registered within 10 minutes.

The place of the consultations was cordoned off by policemen and men in plainclothes before 10 a.m. At 10 a.m. sharp people were allowed to pass the cordons and enter the building for registration. Most likely, organized groups were allowed to enter the hall before the official time of registration.

During registration any participant was given a glossy booklet “We are for the nuclear power station. We are for jobs. We are for salaries”. By their style and design these booklets were an exact copy of propaganda materials of Rosatom (Rosatom Nuclear Energy State Corporation) which had been distributed during discussions on and other nuclear power plants in Nizhny Novgorod, the Baltic and other nuclear power stations in Russia.

Organized arrival of participants is standard tactics of manipulation

“The agreements about reservation of seats to representatives of interested organizations haven’t been respected. The list of NGOs that wanted to participate in the public consultations was made beforehand and sent for registration for organizers of the consultations. Applications for participation were sent to Uladzimir Petrushkevich, secretary of the organizing committee on holding the consultations, an employee of the directorate of the nuclear power station’s construction. According to his assurances, at least 30 seats were reserved for representatives of ecological and other NGOs from all over the country for participation in the consultations, or at least for their attendance,” stated Tastyana Novikava, a member of “Green Network” ecological organisation.

Before the consultations, a Russian expert, anti-nuclear movement activist Andrei Ozharovsky was detained near the entrance of the building. The detention was made by order of deputy head of Astravets internal Affairs department Marek Senkevich.

Materials of the Critical remarks on the environmental impact assessment report were seized from the well-known independent Russian expert. The official environmental impact assessment report was to become the topic of the public hearings, and the Critical remarks on the report prepared by a number of ecological and expert organisations of Belarus were the public’s assessment which was to become the question under discussion.

At the moment the Russian ecologist is kept in the local police department.

Well-known human rights activist Valery Shchukin was not allowed to attend the public consultation

Russian ecologist was taken in this car to the police department

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