Russia sends out 'threats' to those who want to spread information

After reading this thread here www.abovetopsecret.com... and becoming slightly perturbed, I decided to have a look to see what other information was out there about the radioactive threat; official information that is, not heresay. Well, I came across this article:

Russian emergency officials have come up with a novel tool to smother the spate of heat wave caused wildfires that threaten to tear through radioactively contaminated forests and lands during the country’s hottest summer, releasing radiation: pull information about fires in radioactively contaminated areas and threaten punishment for those spreading “rumours.”

On Friday, Sergei Shoigu, head of Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Services (MChS in its Russian abbreviation) issued a strong demand to “deal with” those groups of environmentalists and media who had reported on the “rumours of radiation dangers from the fires in the Bryansk Region,”...

To me this is saying "Hell yeah there's a problem but we'll be damned if we're gonna let people know!"

This stinks of censorship of the highest regard... "Dealing with" people, hmmm, scarey.

As a consequence, public information about fires in areas posing a potential radiation hazard were ripped down from government websites, most significantly the site of Roslesozashchita...

It kind of sums up today's controlled world... There's a major event happening but like always, we'll never know the truth.
Source www.bellona.org...

[edit on 17-8-2010 by and14263]

I believe you are right.

They say they will punish those spreading rumors, yet wont come out and say that what these people are saying is not true.

Well, if its true, then get the help you need instead of trying to act all bad.

If its not true, then say "yo, this aint true, stop spreading lies".

dude sounds like the gov don't want people to know so they slaming them down fail bait

And a lovely mess it's all turning out to be, eh?

Funny how things went from the Deepwater Horizon debacle, to the Wikileaks information "spreading like wildfire", to the Russian gov trying to stop the spread of rumors, that are spreading like wildfire... about spreading wildfires...

lol Gotta love how things work out

reply to post by Jomina


It adds up to 'fear'. What happens when fear and panic sets in? Who do you turn to? May it not be too late.

That's how communists deal with things. Sweep it under the carpet and if anything tries to get out, step on it till it dies. S&F for you.

Originally posted by and14263

On Friday, Sergei Shoigu, head of Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Services (MChS in its Russian abbreviation) issued a strong demand to “deal with” those groups of environmentalists and media who had reported on the “rumours of radiation dangers from the fires in the Bryansk Region,”...

I am always suspicious of news articles (or blogs or whatever it may be) that quote only two words.

The only thing we know from that quote is that Sergei Shoigu said "deal with", but we don't know in what context it was said, because before and after that small quote is text not from Sergei Shoigu.

That's why I like original sources and why I will look for it.

For those that have been following the fires in Russia for the last three weeks this is nothing new, the possibility of the fires reaching the contaminated forests near Chenobyl was considered long ago, and one environmentalist I heard on Euronews said that he (or his organisation, I don't remember) were not that worried about it, considering that the area has been washed by rain for the last 24 years, so the radioactive material present in the area is too little to be worrying.

PS: after some searches, that Belona organisation (that was created in the same year of the Chernobyl accident) looks like the only source of that information.

reply to post by ArMaP

Yeah I understand what you're saying... In fact I found this from a few days ago which suggests he was the person fuelling rumours:

The spreading fires have also increased public fears tied to another nuclear incident. Sergei Shoigu, the Emergencies Minister warned last week that radionuclides near the site of the Chernobyl disaster could disperse further as a result of the wildfires. As reported by the New York Times

Russia’s emergencies minister said Thursday that nuclear contaminants from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster more than 20 years ago could be released into the atmosphere by the fires. “In the event of a fire there, radionuclides could rise together with combustion particles, resulting in a new pollution zone,” the minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, said on state television.

csis.org...

He clears up his potential foot in mouth here:

Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for the Rosatom state atomic corporation, said that the radioactive and explosive materials were moved back to Sarov after the fire situation had stabilized, and there was no immediate need to move them out again.

"There is no threat now to the state nuclear center," he told The Associated Press.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

It does seem that the only report comes from the original source in the OP, others are merely a copy and paste effort, still focusing on the two word quote:
nuclear-news.net...

I do agree that any out of context quote is pretty meaningless, it would be good to find where the quotes were sourced from.

I am no physicist, and correct me if I am wrong.

But the fallout from Chernobyl settled as very fine radioactive dust and debris, maybe onto a heavily forested area. After only a very few rain showers, that dust would end up washed into the soil. After twenty four years it must be pretty well bound up into the deeper soil layers.

The fear seems to be that fire can somehow again release these radioactive dust particles into the air, but I cannot see that happening all that readily.

reply to post by Silver Shadow

Yes for sure, that sounds like common sense. I don't mean to spread fear with this thread. I think your judgement would be correct... The amount of radiation still present, that is able to be 'swept away' in fire, must be very minimal compared to when the Chernobyl disaster happened.

I wonder if fresh radiation is around from weapons factories and such like?