Russia’s Baikal Paper Mill Starts Laying Off Workers

IRKUTSK, September 18 (RIA Novosti) – The bankruptcy supervisor of a controversial Russian paper mill said Wednesday that at least 500 workers had lost their jobs amid the government’s efforts to close the facility by November.

“A decree to lay off about 500-520 workers has been signed,” said the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill's bankruptcy supervisor, Alexander Ivanov.

The much-lambasted mill, on the shore of the world’s biggest freshwater lake, Lake Baikal, was opened in 1966, but its operations were halted in 2008 amid reports that it was polluting the lake’s unique ecosystem.

The plant reopened in 2010 on the order of then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, but the government said in February this year that now it planned to close the plant down for good. Earlier reports said that about 800 workers would lose their jobs.