World

Russia's Leaky Nuclear Subs

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 21, 1998 / 9:39 AM EDT / CBS

Alexander Nikitin's trial for espionage and treason began in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, reports CBS News Moscow Correspondent Richard Threlkeld. Russian federal agents arrested Nikitin in February 1996 after writing about the dangers of nuclear contamination from old Soviet submarines.

Two years ago, the retired Russian navy captain warned in a report to a Norwegian environmental group that decommissioned Soviet submarines, rusting away with nuclear fuel still aboard, will leak radioactive waste into the ocean.

The Russian Federal Security Services, successor to the old Soviet KGB, charged him with revealing state secrets and held him in prison for almost a year.

Nikitin has been getting support from environmentalists and as far away as Canada. The Norwegian environmental group that he reported to in 1996 is also publicizing and following the case on the Internet, with a multilingual Web site.

His St. Petersburg trial was largely closed to the public, but throngs of demonstrators supported the former officer outside the courtroom Tuesday.

Nikitin seemed almost relieved his case is going to be settled. He is reported to be slightly nervous, but the jury doesn't seem especially aggressive. It is thought to be most likely that the court will deal leniently with him.

Russian authorities seem to be hoping that simply by putting Nikitin through a legal ordeal, other environmental whistleblowers will be discouraged from digging too deeply into Russia's dismal environmental record.

But whatever happens to Nikitin, the leaky old nuclear submarines are still anchored on Russia's coast, threatening the former superpower's neighbors and the whole world.