1st letter from Sevastopol

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Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1999 16:42:27 +0300
From: Irina Prusova <[email protected]>
To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],� [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],������ [email protected], [email protected],� [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],� [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],� [email protected], [email protected],�������� [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],� [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],� [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],� [email protected], [email protected],� [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],� [email protected], [email protected],� [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],�� [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],� [email protected]

> Subject: Urgent!
>
> TO ALL HANDS!   URGENT!
>
> Dear colleagues, scientists,
> Dear all honest people!
>
> This urgent message comes out of the scientists of the Institute of Biology
> of the Southern Seas - IBSS (Sevastopol, Ukraine). Today, Dr. Sergey
> Piontkovski, our colleague, was repressed (arrested) by the Ukrainian KGB
> (i.e. Ukrainian Intelligence Security Service). He is accused in criminal
> links with the West (countries of the Western Europe, United Kingdom and
> USA). Projects of international scientific cooperation in marine ecology
> that he worked out in the past 5 years were acknowledged by KGB (i.e. SBU)
> as the criminal ones. He is accused in transfer of scientific information
> of Ukraine to the West, which caused harm to Ukraine. He is also accused
> in currency operations because he paid salary to the project participants
> in hard currency. This was acknowledged as a crime. The following projects
> that Dr. Piontkovski worked out for our Institute with a help of his
> foreign colleagues, were treated as the criminal ones:
> 1. Project INTAS UA 95-80, funded by European Union. The goal  was to set
> up a joint database on marine ecosystems. Participants: Ukraine, U.K.,
> Netherlands, Russia.
> 2. Project of biodiversity of the tropical plankton, funded by "Darwin
> Initiative" (DETR, U.K.). Participants: Ukraine, U.K., Kenya, Panama.
> 3. Studies of bioluminescence of the ocean (joint program between
> Ukraine - U.K. - USA, funded by office of Naval Research, USA).
> 4. He is accused in transfer of biological (physical data of Ukrainian
> expeditions to the ocean to: Plymouth Marine Laboratory (U.K.), Amsterdam
> University (Netherlands), INTAS (EU), ONR (USA), Smithsonian Institution
> (USA), Royal Society (U.K.), Free University of Brussels (Belgium), ETI
> (Netherlands).
> We know: this is  false. Dr. Piontkovski is one of the leading and known
> marine biologists in the world. He is the author and co-author of over 60
> papers, 3 monographs, 20 conference talks in over 15 countries. He is a
> member of International Steering committee of the GLOBEC program. He is
> an honest man. We all treat the KGB action as a press on the democracy
> started with the science. We beg you to undertake all immediate possible
> actions to rescue Dr. Piontkovski. Similar accusations were undertaken by
> SBU against 3 other scientists in Sevastopol.
> Phone to your government!
> Rise up newspapers, broadcast, public opinion!
> Please act!
> Disseminate this message! He will be jailed!
>
> Scientists of the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas (IBSS, 2
> Nakhimov Ave. 99011 Sevastopol, Ukraine)
>
> Director, Prof. V. Zaika
> Deputy director, Dr. Yu. Tokarev
> Scientists of IBSS
> Scientists of Marine Hydrophysical Institute (Sevastopol)
> Tel. (380)692 - 544110, IBSS, director secretary (speaks Russian)
> Tel. (380)692 - 410513, Inna Korshak (Dr. Piontkovski's wife, speaks
> English a little)
> Fax: (380)692 - 557813 (IBSS)
> IBSS home page: ibss.iuf.net
> e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
>