JOIN USMedvedev, standing alongside Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich at a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident, said the disaster had taught states that they must tell the whole truth to their people.
His words amounted to an acknowledgement of wrong-doing by Moscow since the Soviet Union, of which Ukraine was then a part, delayed announcement of the full scale of the accident at the Chernobyl plant for some days.
“The duty of a state is to tell the truth to its people. It must be acknowledged that the (Soviet) state did not always behave correctly,” he said.
“In order for such tragedies never to be repeated we must all be honest, we must provide absolutely exact information about what is going on...,” he said. His words took on added poignancy amid continued efforts by Japan to control the crisis at its Fukushima nuclear plant which was damaged by an earthquake and tsunami.
The Kremlin leader, echoing similar words by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said what was happening in Japan and what happened at Chernobyl made it imperative to draw up new rules covering the peaceful use of nuclear energy and safety. “Today, I sent proposals to (world) leaders ... aimed at guaranteeing the necessary development of nuclear energy in the world while preventing at the same time catastrophic global consequences (of accidents),” he said.
On April 26 1986, the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl plant exploded and caught fire after a safety test experiment went badly wrong. The blast sent radiation billowing across Europe.