(November 2, 1990) Vladivostok, home port of the Soviet Pacific Fleet has seen significant political change in recent years-including concern over environmental and nuclear hazards. Vladivostok was one of four Soviet Far East ports that kept the nuclear powered container ship Sevmorput from docking in early 1989 because of popular protests over nuclear safety (see WISE News Communique 309.3087).
(341.3410) WISE Amsterdam - In June 1990, the Soviet Department of Atomic Energy noted that the construction of a nuclear power plant for Vladivostok had been put on hold after mass protests, rallies and meetings - all evidence that environmental campaigning has an impact in Vladivostok. Dmitri Mikhin of Vladivostok's International Ecology Forum Association stated, "We couldn't believe it, but the protests were like a chain reaction. Because of the Chernobyl explosion, much more information on the harmful affects of radioactivity is now known and the public reaction was so strong that the authorities just couldn't ignore it". Now politicians and environmentalists are pushing to declare Vladivostok nuclear-free. This will of course threaten the Soviet Navy's store of nuclear weapons in its Pacific naval headquarters.
Soviet Navy efforts to decommission a range of nuclear submarines have also run into local opposition. Local councils in the Far Eastern ports of Sovetskaya Gavan and Vanino have threatened a general strike if the Soviet Pacific Fleet does not remove submarines from Postovaya Bay, where the Navy intends to remove nuclear fuel rods from the obsolete vessels. The Commander in Chief of the Soviet Navy, Fleet Admiral Chernavin has criticized the anti-nuclear activists by saying that the US $100,000 it would take to move the subs would be better used to house naval families in the Soviet Far East where there are serious housing shortages.
Furthermore, naval and military exercises in the region are creating a climate where disarmament initiatives will be difficult - as one Green activist noted - "Vladivostok was traditionally a military city, so naturally now it is a nuclear fort". Although the Soviet Pacific Fleet has not conducted a large out-of-area exercise simulating an attack on a US battle group since 1986, there was an unprecedented air exercise in February and March off Sakhalin. Over 130 aircraft practiced air defence tactics a-gainst a presumed invasion of US aircraft carriers into the Sea of Okhotsk.
Source: Pacific News Bulletin (Australia), Sept. 1990, p.6
Contact: The Pacific Campaign to Disarm the Seas (PCDS) has prepared a background paper on "Soviet Naval Issues: Deployments, Cutbacks, Operations, Arms Control Initiatives", which is available from PCDS offices and country contacts; Pacific Concern Resource Centre, P0 Box 489, Petersham NSW 2049, Australia; Ukranian Peace Committee, 168/10 King Street, London W6 OQU, UK.