Preliminary Agreement on Decommissioning Nuclear Waste in Kola Peninsula Reached in Norway

A preliminary agreement on the decommissioning of nuclear waste in the Kola Peninsula was reached during the summit of the Barents region's countries that ended yesterday in the Norwegian town of Kirkenes. According to the leading mass media of Norway, Joran Persson, the Prime-Minister of Sweden and, at this time, the chairman of the Barents Sea Council, called the agreement he signed with Mikhail Kasyanov, the Prime Minister of Russia, a breakthrough yet warned that any festivities were in order only after the carrying out of actual project began.

What previously was in the way of the signing of this agreement was Russia's demand that Added Value Tax be paid o the amounts Western countries were going to afford Russia for the decommissioning of nuclear waste. Mr. Kasyanov said that Russia's government would waive the tax temporarily until the State Duma passed amendments to Russia's tax laws.

The summit took place on the 10th anniversary of the Barents Sea Council.