A QUIET HERO OF OUR TIME: COVID takes life of young Russian anti-nuker

Photo of Rashid Alimov, from his own Facebook Page.Rashid Alimov, a 40-year old Greenpeace Russia campaigner and journalist, has died due to covid-19, shocking and saddening the Russian anti-nuclear movement and colleagues across the world.

Alimov had faced arrests and harassment while protesting in St. Petersburg and against nuclear waste transports from Germany, and was an inveterate champion for the victims of the Mayak disaster. When authorities planned to fuel floating reactors at a port close to the 5 million living in St. Petersburg, it was Alimov’s efforts that got the operation moved to Murmansk. “It’s not often that an entire Russian region owes a debt of gratitude to a single reporter, but in Rashid’s case, it’s true”, wrote Bellona’s Charles Digges in a tribute.

READ MORE.

BELARUS NUKE SHUTS ON DAY 1: Country still suffers from Chernobyl fallout

As reported by AP, the brand new atomic reactor built by Belarus (green on map) dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled more than a quarter-century, operated for but one day before breaking down, already needing replacement parts. Unprecedented large-scale protests against the brutal dictatorship have continued for nearly four months, at very high risk to the protestors. More than 300 peaceful demonstrators were arrested on November 30. Decades ago, Belarus first suffered Stalinist terror, then a brutal Nazi invasion. Beginning April 26, 1986, Belarus suffered very severe Chernobyl radioactive fallout, the exploded and burning reactor just a short distance from its border. Chernobyl Children International has striven to help Belarus since 1991. Deploying reactors there should be a crime.

MORE.