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China Will Have to Be Sued for Pollution, Says Russian Senator

Posted on: Friday, 25 November 2005, 06:00 CST

Text of report by Russian news agency RIA Novosti

Moscow, 25 November: Russia will have to take legal action through the international courts to obtain compensation from China, where an explosion occurred at a chemical plant in one of the provinces on 13 November. The chairman of the Federation Council's committee on ecology, education and science [Committee on Science, Culture, Education, Health Care and Ecology], Viktor Shudegov, did not exclude this possibility in an interview with RIA-Novosti on Friday [25 November].

"The Chinese must pay compensation for the losses. However, they are unlikely to do so voluntarily, and Russia must file specific lawsuits if there are specific consequences as a result of this accident," the senator said.

He noted that contamination of the River Sungari [Songhua] and subsequent contamination of the Amur, into which this river flows, will do serious ecological damage in Russia.

"The disaster which has happened in China will, unquestionably, do enormous ecological damage to the Russian Federation," he said.

In this connection Shudegov called for the earliest possible adoption of a federal law "On compulsory ecological insurance".

Representatives of the committee on ecology, education and health are currently working on the blueprint of this bill.

"We propose introducing compulsory ecological insurance in Russia, along the lines of compulsory car insurance or medical insurance," the senator explained.

In the event of this law being adopted, Shudegov noted, regions would not have find funds "from their meagre budgets" for the payment of compensation for ecological damage. Special insurance companies would handle this, he said.

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

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