Renfrey Clarke

  • Mayak: the other Chernobyl

    MOSCOW — The 1986 accident at Chernobyl was not the first case in which the Soviet nuclear industry contrived to pour huge quantities of deadly radionuclides into the environment. In terms of total radioactivity released, the

  • Russia faces financial meltdown

    MOSCOW — Partly as a result of President Boris Yeltsin's efforts to buy himself victory in the June 16 elections, Russia in coming months is due to experience its most severe financial shocks since the policies of "reform" began

  • Ukrainian authorities jail anti-nuclear protesters

    MOSCOW — With close to 1000 square kilometres of Ukraine made uninhabitable by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, you might expect the authorities in the capital, Kiev, to take a tolerant attitude to protests against nuclear

  • Bankers push nuclear power in eastern Europe

    MOSCOW — To believe its founding charter, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is committed to pursuing "environmentally sound and sustainable development" as it helps fund the transition to market economies in

  • Learning nothing from Chernobyl

    Learning nothing from ChernobylMOSCOW — Ten years after the disaster at Chernobyl, the governments in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have clearly learned little about the dangers of nuclear power. In Russia and Ukraine, plans

  • Ten years later: the true price of nuclear power

    MOSCOW — On April 19, a week before the 10th anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, leaders of the G7 group of industrialised nations met in Moscow with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine for a two-day summit on nuclear

  • Russian political hacks turn 'left'

    MOSCOW — Back in 1990 and 1991, the suggestion would have seemed absurd. Five years into the future, politicians wanting to rise to high office would no longer be proclaiming themselves "democrats" and pronouncing anathemas on

  • Chechen leader calls Yeltsin's bluff

    MOSCOW — In a surprise development on April 8, Dzhokhar Dudayev, the central leader of the Chechen resistance forces, broke with the rebels' past position and called for direct negotiations with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

  • * Yeltsin frees land sales as rural collapse continues

    MOSCOW — As Russian agriculture continues to collapse, President Boris Yeltsin has tried to salvage rural support by ordering drastic changes in the country's land tenure system. A decree of March 7 sets in place a new Land

  • Can Russian Communists topple Yeltsin?

    Since supporters of President Boris Yeltsin were routed in parliamentary elections in December, Russians have been faced with the prospect that their next president may be Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF).

  • Capitalism and Russia's daily bread

    In the final years of perestroika, when there was little in Soviet shops except bare shelves and bored salespeople, Russians could still comfort themselves: at least you could always get bread. In four or five varieties, at prices so low they are almost painful to remember: about 25 kopecks (at the time, a few US cents) for a half-kilo loaf.

  • Russia: learning to live without a job

    MOSCOW — In January, my friend Valya was sacked from her job. A former English teacher, energetic and self-assured, she had quit an office job with a Russian commercial firm in order to take up an offer of better-paid