Upon appeal in late November, the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court unexpectedly sent the case of Grigory Pasko back to the local military court, where treason and espionage charges could be reopened.

Pasko, a military journalist in the Russian far east who was acquitted on those charges and freed from 20 months in prison in July, 1999, blanched at the news, calling it "a death sentence."

"Their time has come. The power of darkness... I don't want to talk about this, guys," he told journalists outside the courtroom.

Further evidence of rising repression against information and dissent on nuclear issues came a few weeks later, when arms control researcher Igor Sutyagin's espionage trial began in Kaluga, Russia. Sutyagin has been in jail since October, 1999, when his work at the Institute for USA and Canada Studies resulted in his arrest on the same day that his colleague, Princeton University arms control researcher Joshua Handler, had his Moscow apartment searched. Handler was not charged and soon left the country.

More information about Grigory Pasko can be found at www.bellona.no.