Alexander Konstantinovich Nikitin (russian: Алекса́ндр Константи́нович Ники́тин; born 16 May 1952) is a Russian former

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

officer and

nuclear safety Nuclear safety is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "The achievement of proper operating conditions, prevention of accidents or mitigation of accident consequences, resulting in protection of workers, the public and the ...

inspector turned environmentalist. In 1996 he was accused of

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

for revealing the perils of decaying nuclear submarines, and in 2000 he became the first Russian to be completely acquitted of a charge of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

in the Soviet or post-Soviet era.

Whistleblower and espionage accusations

Nikitin started to co-operate with

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

environmental

Bellona Foundation The Bellona Foundation is an international environmental Non-governmental organization, NGO headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with branches in Europe and North America. Founded in 1986 by Frederic Hauge and Rune Haaland as a direct action protest gr ...

in 1994. He was arrested in February 1996 by Russian FSB and charged with

through

for his contributions to a Bellona report on the nuclear safety within the Russian

Northern Fleet Severnyy flot , image = Great emblem of the Northern Fleet.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Northern Fleet's great emblem , start_date = June 1, 1733; Sov ...

. On 30 August,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

declared him a prisoner of conscience and began an international campaign for his release. After having spent ten months in pre-trial detention in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

he was released on the order of Mikhail Katushev, the then deputy Russian Prosecutor General, in December 1996. 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 The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (russian: links=no, Верховный суд Российской Федерации, Verkhovny sud Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is a court within the judiciary of Russia and the court of last resort in ...

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. The prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court, but the acquittal was confirmed and reached legal force on 17 April 2000. Nikitin was defended by a group of attorneys in law, including Yury Schmidt,

Ivan Pavlov Ivan Petrovich Pavlov ( rus, Ива́н Петро́вич Па́влов, , p=ɪˈvan pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈpavləf, a=Ru-Ivan_Petrovich_Pavlov.ogg; 27 February 1936), was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist, psychologist and physiol ...

, Victor Drozdov,

Henri Reznik Henri Markovich Reznik, also Genri Reznik (russian: Ге́нри Ма́ркович Ре́зник; born 11 May 1938, in Leningrad) is a prominent Russian lawyer, former criminal investigator and criminologist. He chaired the presidium of the Mosc ...

and others. The prosecution was, however, not willing to call it a day. On 30 May 2000 the Prosecutor General requested the governing body of the Russian Supreme Court, the Presidium, to re-open the case. The basis for the request was that “Nikitin's rights had been violated throughout the proceedings against him, and that these violations had to be repaired” (sic). The Presidium rejected the request on 13 September 2000. Nikitin is still engaged in environmental and

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

issues in Russia. He is the head of

’s Saint Petersburg branch, and is engaged in environmental and nuclear safety projects, as well as in human rights cases. In 1997, Nikitin was awarded the

Goldman Environmental Prize The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. ...

from the Goldman Environmental Foundation, but as a result of treason charges against him, he was prevented from attending the Prize ceremony.

References

External links

Bellona Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nikitin, Alexander 1952 births Living people Russian environmentalists Trials in Russia Russian military personnel Russian political activists Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Russia Russian whistleblowers Russian prisoners and detainees People acquitted of treason Goldman Environmental Prize awardees