The Ideology Secretary of the Yabloko party Sergei Mitrokhin said that on Friday, June 28, 2001 the Federation Council virtually approved the total package of the laws known as “nuclear laws”.

In an interview with journalists, Mitrokhin stressed that the adoption of even a single law out of the package obviously demonstrates that all the three laws are supported, i.e. the senators virtually approved imports of the spent nuclear fuel into Russia.

Speaking about the law that was discussed by the Federation Council, one cannot fail to notice: today the Federation Council supported only the “imitation of transparency of the income that the authorities hope to obtain from the nuclear deals,” saidš Mitrokhin. He also expressed his pity that the senators failed to understand what they were voting for and thus the funds that will be obtained from the imports of spent nuclear fuel into Russia can be spent not only on ecological problems, but also on any other goals.

Mitrokhin also drew the attention of the journalists to the fact that the Yabloko faction tried to change the law to introduce a real transparency in spending of the funds. However, the State Duma declined the amendment of the Yabloko faction, and now virtually the Ministry of Atomic Energy will decide how the country will spend the proceeds from nuclear deals, stressed Mitrokhin.

“It is a pity that there was no fully-fledged discussion on the two key laws of the nuclear package” added Mitrokhin. He also noted that in this way the “senators avoided any decision-making on the most important problem determining the future of our country and all the citizens of Russia”

Based on Interfax reports.

See also:

Interview with Grigory Yavlinsky, Marianna Maximovskaya, “Segodnya” programme, TV-6, June 26, 2001

Nuclear waste bill section of the web-site