The nuclear pollution caused by the Russian military fleet in the Sea of Japan, is far too critical a matter for Moscow to give the media any opportunity to investigate it any further. Their priority seems to be to muzzle the press, rather than to deal with the ecological impact on Russia's worried neighbouring countries. In his Vladivostok prison, Grigory Pasko knows this full well : his incarceration is a wake-up call for all journalists. The Russian military exacts a heavy toll on whoever dares to implicate them.
After having already spent 20 months in jail in 1997 and 1999 before he was even granted a trial, Grigory Pasko was put behind bars again, in December 2001 - where he has been ever since - for the same reasons : Grigory Pasko was sentenced to four years in prison merely for having thoroughly investigated and written hundreds of articles about the pollution caused by the quasi-abandonment-with the complicity of the FSB (ex-KGB - of the Russian military's nuclear submarines, and for allegedly releasing images of the Russian fleet dumping radioactive liquids into the Sea of Japan. These images, which he filmed while working as a correspondent for the naval newspaper Boevaya Vakhta, were broadcast by the NHK Japanese television station, raising vigorous international protests. The FSB deemed these to be acts of "espionnage" and "high treason", he was sentenced in 2001 by the Vladivostok Military Court.
After having already spent 20 months in jail in 1997 and 1999 before he was even granted a trial, Grigory Pasko was put behind bars again, in December 2001 - where he has been ever since - for the same reasons : Grigory Pasko was sentenced to four years in prison merely for having thoroughly investigated and written hundreds of articles about the pollution caused by the quasi-abandonment-with the complicity of the FSB (ex-KGB - of the Russian military's nuclear submarines, and for allegedly releasing images of the Russian fleet dumping radioactive liquids into the Sea of Japan. These images, which he filmed while working as a correspondent for the naval newspaper Boevaya Vakhta, were broadcast by the NHK Japanese television station, raising vigorous international protests. The FSB deemed these to be acts of "espionnage" and "high treason", he was sentenced in 2001 by the Vladivostok Military Court.