Video Interview

Note: The opinions presented are not necessarily those of the Government of Canada.

Public Awareness 2:19 Windows Media | QuickTime

(Video players are available here: QuickTime Windows Media)

Transcript:

Public Awareness

In the Chukchansi area of the Kurgan region, there is a chemical weapons storage area. About two million weapons are stored in that area. These weapons are dangerous not only to Russian citizens, but to the world. The population of the area has to live under these circumstances, near the storage area, but people want to know everything that is happening. So our task was to find out how safe the chemical weapons storage is and what should be done in case of an emergency.

We held a number of meetings with officials to discuss what the chemical weapons’ influence could be on the population, how safe the storage is, and what should be done in case of an emergency, in case of alarm.

In 1997, there were public hearings held in Shchuch’ye. And by the way, they were financed with financial support provided by Canada, the United States and other countries—they supported this initiative. This was the most significant meeting that took place since our town was founded. I think about 1,000 people participated in that event. This was the beginning of our information policy here.

We tried to reach people at their homes, at school, at their work. Now we have a number of people who know about this problem, who can share this information with their colleagues. There are also people who regularly update the information we have. We count on the positive effect from the railroad, which is a railroad project financed by Canada.