Petition on Behalf of Aleksandr Nikitin

We are concerned about the charges that continue to be held against Russian environmental researcher Aleksandr Nikitin, who is charged with divulging Russian state secrets in a report he co-authored under the auspices of the Bellona Foundation, "The Russian Northern Fleet - Sources of Radioactive Contamination." Nikitin and Bellona have stressed that only publicly available sources were used for the report, which has been verified in a detailed Amnesty International study of the case. Although he was released from prison in December 1996, the charges against him still stand, and he is not permitted to leave St. Petersburg.

We join with Amnesty International in urging that Aleksandr Nikitin's release be made unconditional and that all charges against him be dropped. Please take this opportunity to affirm your commitment to international human rights standards, as well as the importance of a clean and safe environment.

Addressed to: Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Federation
Yury Skuratov, Procurator General of the Russian Federation
Yuli Vorontsov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States

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