Statement by the Bureau of the Yabloko’s Green Russia Faction, 11.03.2026

Photo: A Yabloko party event in Petrozavodsk, Karelia, on the first anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, 2012 / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant has entered the history of nuclear energy as one of the largest man-made catastrophes in human history. The explosions at three reactor units, combined with the release of radionuclides into coastal waters, contaminated vast areas with hazardous materials. An enormous number of people were exposed to radiation. The consequences of the Fukushima disaster have not been eliminated. Radioactive water continues to flow into the world’s oceans. Untreated nuclear materials remain a potential danger to the populations of South-East Asia. Radionuclides, entering the food chains of marine ecosystems, are spreading far beyond the region. The threat of internal radiation exposure persists for millions of people in Japan and other countries, including Russia.

There are no safe technologies for generating nuclear energy in the world today. Fukushima is one accident in a succession of similar events. Russia has lived through the Chernobyl catastrophe and the long-concealed disaster at Chelyabinsk-40 (in Ozyorsk). Large territories remain uninhabitable and dangerous to this day. Many of those affected in Russia and elsewhere have not received the support they were entitled to. The state readily “forgets” its debts to the liquidators, their families, and all those who were exposed to radiation and lost the ability to return to their home land.

Beyond the obvious catastrophes, nuclear energy is accompanied by the problem of hazardous nuclear waste. Unable to dispose of it effectively, governments and lobbyists leave everything accumulated to future generations, storing it, as a rule, on the territory of the Russian Federation. Rosatom [the Russian atomic agency] proposes to “bury and forget” nuclear waste, presenting the imports of spent fuels from abroad as a competitive advantage. The world, though aware of the dangers of “peaceful” nuclear power, allows itself to be lulled by fantasies about the development of entirely safe reactors.

The Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party declares that ignoring the problems generated by an unquestioning belief in nuclear energy as the only option is irresponsible and immoral. It is unconscionable to plan new disasters in the face of the evidence left by previous ones. Russia must halt the construction of new nuclear facilities in favour of developing renewable energy. The Yabloko party is categorically opposed to the importation of spent nuclear fuels from other countries into Russia, regarding it as a threat to the safety of Russian citizens, and, in particular, to the residents of its final destinations: the Chelyabinsk and Krasnoyarsk regions.

The state must make every effort to carry out the environmental rehabilitation of Russian territories contaminated with radionuclides. Russian citizens affected by the Chernobyl and other nuclear disasters, along with their families, must receive adequate state support to restore their health and live with dignity.

The state is obliged to guarantee every Russian citizen the right to nuclear and radiation safety.

The Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party considers it essential that nuclear risks and threats should not be forgotten in any sphere of public life.

Bureau of the Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party