Paul Goble
Staunton, September 22 – Environmentalists joke that the clean skies over Europe are paid for by the contamination of those over Norilsk, the headquarters of Nornikel, the Russian firm with close ties to the Kremlin that currently spews out twice as much sulfur dioxide as all American companies combined.
The numerically small peoples of the Russian North have called on Western firms not to purchase metals from Nornikel (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/08/russias-northern-peoples-call-on-tesla.html). Activists are calling for a broader boycott of the firm even though that will spark new tensions between the West and the Kremlin.
The VTimes news agency, created by Russian journalists committed to the integration of Russia into Europe, explains in a new article that Nornikel’s contamination of the atmosphere reflects its special relationship with Vladimir Putin, a relationship that goes back to the very start of his time in office (vtimes.io/news/kak-nornikel-stal-glavnym-zagryaznitelem-arktiki).
In May 2000, in one of his first acts as president, Putin disbanded the State Environmental Committee, thus giving Nornikel and other firms the power to ignore environmental regulations in the pursuit of more investments from abroad and greater profits at home.
The VTimes provides details and documentation on how the Putin-Nornikel relationship has developed over the last 20 years to its current disastrous state and suggests the steps that need to be taken so that this Russian firm does not continue to damage the environment not only in Russia and over the Arctic but in the world as a whole.
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