47 



Mr. Weldon. Dr. Yablokov, one final question. There is a press 

 story running in the Western media this past week quoting 

 Nicholai Veransoff, saying that the upcoming December elections 

 for the Duma really have no candidates who are out front on envi- 

 ronmental issues. And, in fact, Mr. Veransoff makes the case that 

 there is one faction running, one party claiming to be an environ- 

 mental group and he says there is no one in that party who, in 

 fact, is concerned with the environment. Would you comment on 

 that? 



Dr. Yablokov. It is strategy for our political systems. We have 

 one small official green party. This party belongs to some oil mag- 

 nates. In my point of view, it is specially created to intervene in 

 the Duma, not to solve the environmental problem but for other 

 reasons, maybe half criminal reasons. 



Now, I know only three or four visible environmental activists 

 who have a good chance to be elected to the next Duma. One of 

 them is Madam Zlotnica from Olenburg [?], one of the leaders of 

 the green movement in the existing Duma. But let us see what 

 happens. Let us see what happens. 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you, and thank you both for your testimony. 

 It was outstanding. We appreciate you being here and for making 

 a long trip to our country. 



With that, we will convene our next panel. Ambassador David 

 Colson from the Department of State, Assistant Secretary for 

 Oceans, International Environment; Sherri Goodman, Deputy 

 Under Secretary, Department of Defense, for Environmental Secu- 

 rity; and Dr. Alan Hecht, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator 

 for the Environmental Protection Agency, to discuss what, in fact, 

 is happening within the U.S. Government and our agencies to as- 

 sist in the problems that we have just discussed internationally, 

 and I am sure to respond to Dr. Yablokov's comments. 



Ambassador Colson, we appreciate you being here. We know you 

 have to catch a plane back to London for the London Convention 

 discussions, I assume, and we appreciate you coming out in spite 

 of the fact that you will be on an airplane in a few short hours. 

 We will allow you to go first, and if we have questions we will ask 

 them of you. Then you can feel free to take off. Thank you. 



STATEMENT OF AMBASSADOR DAVID A. COLSON, ACTING AS- 

 SISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR OCEANS, INTER- 

 NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT, DEPARTMENT OF STATE 



Ambassador Colson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I do 

 have a prepared statement and ask that it be placed in the record. 



I had the privilege to testify for the administration before the 

 House Oceanography Subcommittee on this subject in 1993 and I 

 think perhaps the best thing I could do is simply note some 

 changes that have happened in the last 2 years. I will hit four spe- 

 cific areas. 



First, in respect to administration policy, in June 1994, after ex- 

 tensive interagency consideration, the President endorsed an Arctic 

 policy for this Nation based on six objectives: Protecting the Arctic 

 environment and conserving its biological resources; assuring that 

 natural resource management and economic development in the re- 

 gion are environmentally sustainable; strengthening institutions 



