Alexander Nikitin, a. Russian environmentalist, faces imprisonment for warning the world of the potential nuclear disaster posed by Russia's aging and dangerous fleet of nuclear submarines. He has broken no law. Yet the Russian government is determined to silence him. An international campaign has been launched to clear his name and to press the Russian government to take immediate action to prevent a dangerous environmental catastrophe.

EarthAction, an international campaigning network of more than 1,600 organisations in over 140 countries, is working with other campaigners, in Russia and elsewhere, to bring to the world's attention the case of Alexandr Nikitin, and what they say is "the threat of potential nuclear disaster in the former Soviet Union."

Alexandr Nikitin is a former Captain in the Russian Navy. In 1995, he began working with the Norwegian environmental group Bellona, which was established after the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 to monitor the state of Russia's nuclear arsenal. Nikitin was helping Bellona to produce a report on the Russian nuclear submarine fleet, which according to Bellona is in an extremely dangerous state.

Russia has over a hundred nuclear submarines, most of them in the seas between Russia and Nor-way, an area which consequently has the highest concentration of nuclear reactors in the world. According to the campaigners, "post-Soviet Russia cannot afford to maintain its massive nuclear fleet, so scores of ancient, rusting vessels and their reactors are disintegrating in Russia's polar seas. The danger of leakage or even melt-down is a very real one." This could effect the entire region, and potentially the entire world.

Alexandr Nikitin worked with Bellona to assemble information about the Russian submarine fleet. According to Nikitin, his lawyer, and Amnesty International, who have investigated his case, the information Nikitin gathered was in the public domain, and included no state secrets. Nevertheless, when the Russian secret police found out, they first raided Bellona's Russian Offices, confiscating the report, then arrested Nikitin and put him in jail. He remained there for ten months and eight days until international pressure forced his release. At no time was Nikitin told what crime he was supposed to have committed.

The campaigners are supporting Nikitin's demands that he know what he has been charged with and that his case be transferred to Russia's high court where he has more of a chance for an impartial trial. They are also urging Russian President Boris Yeltsin to take immediate action to address the environmental dangers exposed by Bellona's report.

The campaigners continue, "The Nikitin affair is a test case for environmentalism in post-Soviet Russia. Whether he wins or loses will determine how free the people really are to engage in debate with the government on serious environmental issues, and will demonstrate how committed Russia's government really is to clearing up the massive environmental mess left by their predecessors."

Additional information can also be found on Bellona's website: wwwgrida.no/ngo/bellona/ and on the Sierra Club's website: wwwsierraclub.org/human-rights.