Putin Allowed the Reopening of a Factory on the Banks of the World's Oldest Lake

The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has decreed that a paper manufacturing plant on the shores of Siberia's Lake Baikal can resume production despite years of complaints about the pollution affecting one of  the deepest and the oldest lake in the world.

Putin, in a decree published on the website of the Government, has allowed the start after a long reboot the re-pulping mill, paper and cardboard in the area surrounding the lake, located about 5,000 km east of the capital, Moscow.

Controlled indebted Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska, the mill, whose construction dates from the Soviet era, closed in 2008 amid accusations of causing pollution and affecting the lake. Advocacy groups of nature have long attacked the factory, since they ensure that threatens the lake that hosts up to 1,500 species of animals and plants, including a unique seal that lives in freshwater.

Greenpeace says it is deeply concerned about the future plans and to ask President Dimitri Medvedev to reverse the decision of Putin. "The Baikal pulp mill is a dangerous business for the environment," Greenpeace said in a statement. "It simply has no place on the banks of the sacred lake," he added.

Putin, after personally inspecting the Baikal last year, said scientists had been told that the plant wouldl not harm the lake, which has a fifth of the world's surface freshwater and Siberian tribes revere considered sacred.

The factory employed almost 2,000 people and is the main contractor of the city of Baikalsk, which has a population of 17,000. "The plant poses no threat to the ecosystem of Lake Baikal, so we gladly Putin's decision," said a spokeswoman for the factory, Oksana Gorlova.

"Almost every family in the city is related to this company, so the decision was taken by the people of Baikalsk" he added. "Production will begin this year," he said. Located in southeast Siberia, Lake Baikal is the oldest and deepest in the world, and is considered World Heritage by the United Nations Organization for Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Informational resources: Lignum, Russian Forestry Review