The Bellona Environmental Transparency Center

The Bellona Environmental Transparency Center, based in Vilnius, is an investigative group within the Bellona Foundation that operates as an independent non-profit solution-oriented environmental NGO. Our team monitors and analyzes Russia’s environmental impact within and across borders with a special focus on nuclear and radiation safety and security, climate change and industrial pollution. Since 1989, Bellona has documented and exposed grave environmental conditions within the then-Soviet Union, and later within Russia. For 28 years from 1994 to 2022, Bellona maintained offices in Murmansk and St. Petersburg working towards securing large quantities of nuclear waste from the Russian nuclear industry and military, protecting the environmental rights of the population and producing science-based information for a wide-ranging public. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 impelled Bellona to cease its operations in Russia, shutting down both its offices and relocating its personnel and expertise to a new office in Vilnius that opened in 2023. Bellona’s experts are closely following events in Ukraine, producing articles and working papers in both English and Russian. We also offer a subscription to our monthly Bellona Nuclear Digest with regular updates on important issues in the field of nuclear and radiation security relative to Ukraine and Russia, as well as the influence of Russia’s nuclear industry on other countries.