On this day, December 1999, twenty-five years ago, a Russian submarine commander who blew the whistle on dodgy storage of submarines was acquitted.
29 Dec 1999 – The charges were, however, not dropped. Nikitin first stood trial in October 1998, when the Saint Petersburg City Court rejected the evidence against him. But rather than acquitting him, the Court sent the case back to the FSB for additional investigation. The Supreme Court of Russia confirmed this decision in February 1999, and the FSB filed new charges in July 1999.
The second trial started at the Saint Petersburg City Court in November 1999, and ended on 29 December with a full acquittal
(though the prosecutors tried to get further bites at the cherry).
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 327ppm. As of 2024 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that militaries all around the world are enormous polluters and are able to escape scrutiny by either saying “national security” or impugning the patriotism (sic) of investigators/critics.
What we can learn is that speaking up is risky, and the State (or corporates) like to make examples – the modern day equivalent of sticking heads on pikes…
What happened next. According to Wikipedia
Nikitin is still engaged in environmental and human rights issues in Russia. He is the head of Bellona Foundation’s Saint Petersburg branch, and is engaged in environmental and nuclear safety projects, as well as in human rights cases.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
December 29, 1969 – AAAS symposium on “Climate and Man”
December 29, 1995 – Sydney Morning Herald points out year has been hottest yet…