To all appearances it was victory for Baikal’s jobseekers and bitter defeat for its ecologists when the officials said the Baikalsk Paper and Pulp Mill would be back on line by the end of February, once again dumping waste into the pristine waters of Lake Baikal. Activists on Sunday took to the streets in defense of the freshwater lake and some demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who in January signed off on a resolution allowing the mill to reopen, ostensibly to create jobs. But a director for WWF Russia painted a very different picture, arguing that business interests are really shaping the future of the UNESCO-protected lake and using job-making as a pretext.
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