Grigory Pasko: Eastern Promises Broken

Bureaucrats Behind Bars, or “Dictatorship of the law” – Putin-style Grigory Pasko, journalist On one of my business trips to Baikal last year, I made the acquaintance of the mayor of Listvyanka, Tatiana Kazakova. About Kazakova I had been told by an activist –an ecologist who had been an opponent of Kazakova’s plans to build in Listvyanka dozens of hotels, a business center and other facilities. In the opinion of the ecologist, this would cause very much harm to Lake Baikal, which is found but a short step from Listvyanka, and to the Angara River which flows out of it. And indeed, tiny Listvyanka just isn’t suitable for such a quantity of large buildings. Here are needed facilities of another type, but first you’d need to develop the infrastructure and build waste treatment facilities. The first time I saw Ms. Kazakova was in... [read full story]