Russian researcher, who contributed to Arctic Council reports, is accused of state treason
According to Russian security services, Aleksei Dudarev’s scientific contributions to international publications on Arctic environment “can be used by Norwegian intelligence.”
Dudarev was arrested on his way to work on January 14. Security officials searched through his apartment and subsequently placed him in a pretrial detention centre.
The renowned researcher is accused of state treason and could face life in prison.
According to the First Department, a group of Russian independent human rights lawyers in exile, the security services have found information in Dudarev’s international publications that “can be used by Norwegian intelligence.”
Aleksei Dudarev works as senior researcher at the North-West Scientific Centre for Hygiene and Public Health in St. Petersburg. Over the course of many years, he has published extensively in domestic and international research journals.
Among the latter are reports published by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP).
Executive Secretary of AMAP Rolf Rødven confirms to the Barents Observer that Durarev has contributed to the AMAP reports.
“The Secretariat of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) confirms that Dr Alexej Dudarev has been an expert in our expert group on human health, nominated by Russia. Dr Dudarev has lived and worked in Russia, where he has conducted research on environmental pollutants and health,” Rødven writes in a statement.
He says Dudarev’s most recent contribution to AMAP’s work was to the report AMAP Assessment 2021: Human Health in the Arctic.
The contribution was subject to review by all involved countries, Rødven explains.
“The report followed our normal procedures, whereby all chapters were sent to the Arctic states for review prior to publication.”
AMAP is one of the permanent working groups of the Arctic Council. It resumed cooperation with Russia in 2024.
According to Dudarev’s family, the researcher has exclusively worked with scientific research related to health issues among people living in the hight north.
He never had access to information constituting state secrets, his son emphasises in a comment.
Dudarev does not admit guilt, the First Department reports.
Judging from a list of publications available on the website of the North-West Scientific Centre for Hygiene and Public Health, Dudarev has recently worked with issues related to health among people in the far northern Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Previously, he has published extensively also on the health situation in Pechenga, the Russian border area contigeous to Norway and Finland.
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