Putin is surrounded by plankton

He himself admitted this to reporters - and allowed Deripaska to drain into Baikal

Vladimir Putin has allowed the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill (BPPM) owned by Oleg Deripaska to resume dumping industrial waste into Lake Baikal. Now you can legally shit in the "glorious sea": the production of pulp, paper and...

Vladimir Putin has allowed the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill (BPPM) owned by Oleg Deripaska to resume dumping industrial waste into Lake Baikal. Now it is legal to shit in the “glorious sea”: the production of cellulose, paper and cardboard is excluded by a government decree from the list of activities prohibited on Lake Baikal. That is, it is allowed. Having diverted the Transneft pipe from Lake Baikal in the spring of 2006, Putin apparently considered his limit of benefits for Siberians exhausted.

The quality of fresh water on the planet is deteriorating, many sources have been poisoned, scientists around the world are increasingly talking about the depletion of groundwater that is already taking place. Experts talk about the coming water wars. Baikal is the well of the planet, it contains one fifth of the world's fresh water reserves. In 1996, Baikal was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, one of the conditions for including the lake in this list was to stop the discharge of sewage.

But all these and millions of other words that can be said about the uniqueness and pricelessness of Baikal are not as significant for the Russian prime minister as the financial problems of one person - Deripaska. What's up with Putin? Judging by all the gifts that Deripaska received from the government in a year with a slight crisis, this is love. Reckless and irresponsible.

The BPPM has been out of work for only 15 months since the beginning of October 2008. And it has been poisoning Baikal since 1966. In September 2008, it seemed that what the public had been fighting for for decades had come to pass: to reduce the discharge of washing water, a “closed water circulation system” was introduced at the BPPM. The requirements of Rosprirodnadzor are satisfied. That's what the public was told. However, three weeks later, the plant stopped altogether. Since there is no such system at BPPM. Just as there was no closed cycle, there is none. In October 2008, out of 2.2 thousand factory workers, 1.7 thousand were released from work.

In the summer of 2009, Putin plunged to the bottom of the lake on the Mir submersible. He assessed the situation and said: “As for Baikal, it is in good condition and there is practically no pollution. The biology of Lake Baikal is practically unchanged - I observed a huge amount of plankton and living creatures. About the BPPM, the prime minister then said: “We will not act thoughtlessly, carelessly, not thinking about nature and Baikal, but we must act carefully, thinking about the people who live here.”

So, regarding the speeches that the launch of the plant is the only hope for saving the monotown of Baikalsk. That this is done for the sake of the people. First, to oppose the right to a safe environment and the opportunity to hunch over a bowl of soup is somehow not in the state. What is more important to whom, maybe people will decide for themselves? It would have been more appropriate for the state to ask Deripaska when he would pay wages and compensations to those fired. Secondly, the launch of the BPPM will not give anything to a city with a population of 17,000, in a few months it will rise again, since it is unprofitable, its technologies are from the Stone Age, the equipment is outdated and worn out. Thirdly, does anyone promise that the BPPM will again start hiring the dismissed? Almost half of them have already found a new job, in Baikalsk now they are only talking about the fact that about 500 people will be returned to the plant again. But temporarily.

Baikal pulp and paper mill should be buried. This, by the way, was what happened. Irkutsk Arbitration has started bankruptcy proceedings. The leadership of the BPPM recently received a refusal from the Ministry of Industry and Trade on a request to allow work with the discharge of wastewater into Baikal, the ministry supported the liquidation of the plant.

But Putin intervened. Having rendered meaningless the already reached arrangements and agreements on the re-profiling of the enterprise.

The output of unbleached pulp is unprofitable. Bleached - prohibited. Bye. The mill had previously been banned from using chlorine to bleach pulp. New chlorine-free bleaching equipment costs tens of millions of dollars. Deripaska does not have them. He has debts. Putin will?

Deripaska is showing confidence in his version of a public-private partnership. BPPM resumed production a few days before Putin's decision. On January 11, the first batch of products was released - unprofitable unbleached pulp. On January 13, the prime minister signed the decree.

By the way, they also made changes regarding waste management on the Baikal shores. Every one of these measures will make life easier for the industry and worsen the environment.

The way the government is saving Deripaska's property, be it the Pikalevsky alumina plant or the Baikal plant, clearly shows the prime minister's priorities. And this is by no means the modernization of the country. These are not only directly opposite, these are mutually exclusive things - the salvation of Deripaska and his BPPM with the further transformation of Baikal into a sewer, and all those ideals that the Kremlin periodically talks about.