Russia says it will allow UN experts to inspect the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant after a series of explosions over the weekend, but the experts’ access will be “strictly within their mandate,” the assistant chairman of Russia’s nuclear engineering company said. Rosenergoatom Renat Karchaa, reports the Russian news agency TASS.

The UN nuclear watchdog will assess the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on Monday after it was bombed more than 12 times over the weekend. The International Atomic Energy Agency said the explosions damaged buildings and equipment, although none was “critical” to nuclear safety. Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of bombing Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.

“Access will be granted, but strictly within their authority. They tend to interpret their mandate as “unlimited”. It does not. The IAEA is an organization that deals with nuclear safety issues. Naturally, we will provide them with access to the appropriate premises. But if they want to inspect a facility that has nothing to do with nuclear security, they will be denied access. Not because we want to hide something, but because they have to work within their powers,” said Renat Karchaa.

At the same time, he noted that it could be dangerous for IAEA inspectors to visit the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

“Of course, it’s dangerous. These people can open artillery fire at any moment,” Karchaa said, referring to the Ukrainian military.

Who is Renat Karchaa, the monkey expert whom the Russians sent to the Zaporizhzhya NPP

Renat Karchaa, one of the Russian officials at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, has an interesting story before becoming a “nuclear expert”, his career path raises many questions.

Investigative journalists from Mediazona, a Russian website that, like the better-known Meduza, operates outside the country to avoid censorship imposed by Moscow authorities, reconstructed Karchaa’s biography after he explained to IAEA officials in slaughterhouse that “when they fall, the projectiles make a 180-degree rotation”, and therefore it seems that only the Russians fired, not the Ukrainian armed forces.

Russian state media call him a “nuclear expert” and adviser to the head of Rosatom, although contradictory and fragmentary references in public sources give as much reason to consider Karchaa a primatologist from Sukhumi, a political consultant from Pskov, or an official from Murmansk.

In the biographical information about Karchaa on the Abkhazia-Inform website, it is stated that he was born on July 17, 1966 in Ufa, the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan in Russia, graduated from school with a gold medal, and served in the Soviet army in Tallinn. .

In the late 1980s, Karchaa moved to Abkhazia in the Caucasus region, where he received a degree in biology and geography from the state university of the region, which became part of Georgia immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

At the age of 25, Karchaa became the youngest member of the first Abkhaz parliament. During this period, in addition to his parliamentary activities, he also held the position of director of the Research Institute of Primatology and Experimental Therapy, which conducted research on monkeys from a well-known farm in Sukhum, the largest city and capital of Abkhazia. .

Ukraine imposed sanctions against Karchaa and another 700 individuals and legal entities associated with the Russian state nuclear company Rosatom.

Mutual accusations in the explosion of the Zaporizhzhia plant

Karchaa called the height of cynicism the IAEA’s statement that the damage at the Zaporizhzhia NPP is not critical for nuclear safety.

The Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine was rocked by a bombing on Sunday, drawing condemnation from the United Nations nuclear watchdog, which warned that such attacks risked a major nuclear disaster.

More than ten explosions rocked Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on Saturday night and Sunday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported. Moscow and Kyiv accuse each other of bombing the target, according to Reuters and Agerpres.

“The news from our team yesterday and this morning is extremely disturbing,” said Rafael Grossi, head of the IAEA, whose team on the ground reported damage to some buildings, systems and equipment at the nuclear power plant.

“The explosions happened on the site of this large nuclear power plant, which is absolutely unacceptable. Whoever is behind them must put an end to them immediately. As I have said many times, don’t play with fire!”, he added.

Repeated bombings of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant, which Russia took control of shortly after its invasion in February, have raised concerns about the possibility of a major accident just 500km from the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident since 1986, Chernobyl.

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