Cooperation for Peace in the Joint Baltic Habitat

​Cooperation for Peace in the Joint Baltic Habitat 



A PEACE MESSAGE FROM RUSSIA: Dear friends! Colleagues!

Unfortunately, I am not in Helsinki today.
A double iron curtain created by politicians separates us.
This iron curtain divides our common Baltic Sea. 
Politicians have announced preparations for a new big war in Europe.
According to one of the scenarios published by NATO, the Russian naval base in Kaliningrad will be destroyed first. The remaining naval forces will be blocked in the St. Petersburg area. Russian admirals also have a winning scenario in case of a conflict in the Baltic.
Thus, NATO and Russian military plan to make the Baltic Sea an arena of military operations. 
There will be more than 30 nuclear reactors and thousands of tons of nuclear waste in temporary storage facilities in the theater of military operations.
In case of a big war in the Baltic, the nuclear power plants and temporary storages of the nuclear waste will be destroyed. 
In this case, the consequences will be more dangerous than the explosion of an atomic bomb.
For example, the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant with Chernobyl-type reactors produced approximately 1 billion lethal concentrations of plutonium-239 in spent nuclear fuel.
This amount of plutonium can kill 10 times more people than the number of people living in the Baltic drainage basin in 9 countries, including Russia.

Albert Einstein once expressed an idea that in the context of politics may sound like this: 
if there is a crisis in the political system, then it is impossible to find a way out if it is done by politicians who created this crisis.

The global political elite cannot offer us anything but war. They divide us by nationality, political characteristics, and try to make enemies of the inhabitants of the Baltic region.
We need to unite - the civil society of Russia and the countries of the Baltic Region. I think the basis for such a unification can be nature, historical and cultural values around the Baltic.
Several ideas for specific actions:

First: organize a Baltic photo exhibition of favorite places on the Baltic coast. This is a photo exhibition not of professional photographers, but of participants in environmental and peacekeeping movements of the Baltic Sea countries. This exhibition will show that our favorite places in Russia and Baltic countries are very similar.

Second: publish a catalogue of ecological, historical and cultural values on the Baltic coast. We have been publishing such a booklet on the Russian part of the Baltic coast. Let's publish a common booklet! 

Third: prepare and publish an analytical report by experts of the Baltic countries on the possible consequences after the destruction of the Baltic nuclear power plants.

Fourth: create a coalition The Baltic region is our common habitat. It is reasonable to invite to the coalition of peacekeeping, environmental, human rights organizations, as well as representatives of regional parliaments from the Baltic region. 

I invite you to discuss these ideas on the international online/offline conference in St. Petersburg on September 6-7.
Thank you!


Oleg Bodrov, physicist, ecologist, St. Petersburg, Russia
Board member of the International Peace Bureau

Helsinki, July 30, 2025 








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