November 15, 2007 By Grigory Pasko

Grigory Pasko: Russia’s Atomic Monster

picture1115.jpgThe atomic monster and its resurrection By Grigory Pasko, journalist On 13 November, the State Duma considered in the third, and final, reading a draft law on the creation of the state corporation «Rosatom». It is to this organization that the shares in OAO «Atomic energy industry complex» («Atomenergoprom») and the property of federal state unitary enterprises (FGUP) found on the balance sheet of the agency will be transferred. In such a manner, the new structure will combine under one roof all the enterprises of the atomic energy industry and nuclear weapons complexes of Russia. In February of this year, Vladimir Putin signed a document with a rather long-winded name – “On the peculiarities of the management and disposition of the property and shares of organizations implementing activity in the realm of the use of atomic energy and on the introduction of amendments into individual legislative acts of the Russian Federation”. Earlier, this document had successfully – and, most important, rapidly – passed through all the parliamentary steps. The main content of the document was the division of the Russian nuclear complex into two independent directions – military and civilian.