Aleksander graduated from the Sevastopol Higher Naval Engineering College and the Naval Academy with a degree in the operation of nuclear power plants. He served on nuclear submarines, then worked as the head of the Nuclear Safety Inspection group of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

In 1992 he retired from the armed forces. Since 1994, he has been an advisor at the Bellona Foundation. From 2000 to 2022, he was the head of the Bellona office in St. Petersburg.

A captain 1st rank in the reserve, he became famous in Russia and elsewhere in 1996 after the publication of a report on the dangers posed by the nuclear and radiation heritage of the USSR Navy. From 1996 to 2000, he was accused of disclosing state secrets because of a published report. In 2000, he was acquitted by the Supreme Court of Russia and the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. From January 2011 untill February 2022, he was a member of the Public Council of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom and head of the Commission of the Public Council on Environment at Rosatom on a voluntary basis.

He is author and co-author of dozens of Bellona’s reports and publications on nuclear and radiation safety. He has won many international prizes in the field of environmental protection and human rights, including the Goldman Environmental Prize (USA), the Edict of Nantes (France), the Freedom of Speech Foundation (Norway), winner of the Man of the Year in the Environment (Ukraine), the Association of American Scientists, the German Bar Association, the Green Party Sweden, the International Pen Center, etc.

Amnesty International recognized him as the first prisoner of conscience in post-Soviet Russia.