Word: goskompriroda
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Dates: during 1989-1989
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Amid the turmoil the Soviet government has finally begun to move. The Kremlin has reorganized a number of departments into the new State Committee for the Protection of the Environment, Goskompriroda, and given it an impressive range of powers. "In this restructuring," said Nicholas Robinson, a Pace University professor and an expert on the Soviet environment, "the Communist Party Central Committee has decided that, after disarmament, environmental protection is the No. 1 world issue." An aggressive cleanup program has already begun. Projects are being re-evaluated in light of their environmental impact. Fines have been levied on some polluters...
...sign of the Soviets' willingness to join international environmental efforts was their presence at the TIME conference in Boulder. Fyodor Morgun, the recently appointed head of Goskompriroda, made his first trip to the U.S. (and only his second journey outside the Soviet Union) to attend the meeting. And he was startlingly frank about the situation in his country. "We have started too late," Morgun told the group. "Our air is not up to the proper mark, our soil is polluted, and our forests are affected. Drastic measures were taken in the West 15 to 20 years ago to improve...