St. Petersburg's local Federal Security Service (FSB) chief, appearing on a local television talk show, accused environmentalist Alexander Nikitin of being a spy, and declared that the FSB's investigation-which has now dragged on for over two years-will prove his suspicions to be correct. This statement was followed by the leveling of a sixth set of charges of treason against Nikitin, who raised the ire of the former KGB by publishing a report, based entirely on published documents, on the ecological and health dangers posed by Russia's Northern Fleet. In addition, it was announced that investigation would be extended for yet another month.

FSB Chief Viktor Cherkesov's accusation has greatly disturbed human rights activists worldwide, including William Cohen, a UCSJ Board Member and President of the Center for Human Rights Advocacy in Boulder, Colorado, who called Cherkesov's statement "another clear violation of the Russian Constitution and of established international human rights law." Cohen argued that such a statement "is clearly designed to prejudge the outcome of the case, to prepare the public to believe Nikitin is guilty, and to intimidate the courts, which are traditionally not independent of pressures by the state's security organs. It makes a mockery of the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial before an independent court, as is inscribed in the Russian Constitution."

"Nikitin's chances of getting a fair trial in Russia, already questionable, have been further compromised by this calculated step by his persecutors," Cohen concluded. "Coming on the heels of the FSB's persistence in charging Nikitin with both secret and ex post facto laws in violation of the Russian Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights (by which Russia is bound), and international law, it is evident that this historic agency of repression needs to be controlled by Yeltsin's government. That task has been assigned to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. His failure to rein in lawless behavior by the FSB not only makes him complicit in such behavior, it signals to the world that Russia's claim to be governed by an enforceable constitution and its commitment to the rule of law are just another Soviet-style façade."

Leonid Lvov, UCSJ's and the Bay Area Council for Jewish Rescue and Renewal's St. Petersburg bureau director, who has followed the Nikitin case closely since its inception in 1996, concurred with Cohen's assessment. "The Russian Constitution was violated brazenly, as usual."

"In the final analysis," asserted UCSJ President Yosef I. Abramowitz, "this is a bogus and purely political case, brought to have a chilling effect on human rights and environmental whistle blowers. If Russia's leaders want to be seen as democratic, they will dismiss all charges in this case."

Click here to link to the St. Petersburg Times' story on the latest charges against Nikitin

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