Leaders agree to clean up Kola Peninsula

At recent meeting in Kirkenes, Norway, prime ministers from the Nordic countries and Russia agreed to help clean up the Kola Peninsula, where rusting Russian submarines and nuclear waste threaten the region’s Arctic environment. The agreement should be ratified by the Russian parliament this year.

The deal was stalled until Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov finally agreed to grant tax exemptions for the equipment and technology used in recycling radioactive material.

“I think that this is the critical breakthrough for which we have been waiting many years … to contribute in the Kola peninsula,” Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson told Swedish Radio.

Leaders also pledged to help reinforce Russia’s nuclear facilities, where security is often slack. There are more than 100 nuclear submarines at Russian’s Northern Fleet bases on the peninsula, where northwestern Russia borders Norway.