The Bellona Environmental Transparency Center, based in Vilnius, is an investigative group within The Bellona Foundation that operates as an independent non-profit solution-oriented environmental NGO. Our team monitors and analyses Russia’s environmental impact within and across borders with a special focus on nuclear and radiation safety and security, climate change and industrial pollution.

Since 1989, Bellona has documented and exposed grave environmental conditions within the then-Soviet Union, and later within Russia. For 28 years from 1994 to 2022, Bellona maintained offices in Murmansk and St. Petersburg working towards securing large quantities of nuclear waste from the Russian nuclear industry and military, protecting the environmental rights of the population and producing science-based information for a wide-ranging public.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 impelled Bellona to cease its operations in Russia, shutting down both its offices and relocating its personnel and expertise to a new office in Vilnius that opened in 2023.

Bellona’s experts are closely following events in Ukraine, producing articles and working papers in both English and Russian. We also offer a subscription to our monthly Bellona Nuclear Digest with regular updates on important issues in the field of nuclear and radiation security relative to Ukraine and Russia, as well as a subscription to our monthly highlights from the Russian Arctic, where we analyse the events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic and beyond.

Bellona’s sources of income 

The Foundation has over many years developed several different income streams and revenue models that together finance our activities. Our revenues come mainly from philanthropy, project funding, the cooperation programme with the business sector, and a modest share of public operating grants. 

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