Russian Global Warming Conspiracist Andrei Areshev, Deputy Director of Russia's Strategic Culture Foundation, Interviewed by RFE/RL

"My comments were not made in order to accuse the U.S., or any other country, of consciously influencing Russia," Areshev said. "That would be quite ridiculous."

Asked whether or not Russia was also experimenting with climate-control methods, Areshev said since he was not a member of the government, he did not have information about such projects.---Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (7-30-10)

Last fall, the Kremlin-financed satellite channel Russia Today promoted the conspiracy theory that global warming was a "hoax" perpetrated by British and American climate scientists in order to justify more government power. For example, they interviewed the British global warming denialist Lord Monckton. Western "experts" may be viewed as having more credibility with English-speaking Russia Today audiences.

Last week, instead of claiming that global warming doesn't exist, Andrei Areshev, the deputy director of Russia's Strategic Culture Foundation, claimed that global warming exists and that U.S. climate scientists are causing global warming with secret "climate weapons."

In America, foundations and so-called "scientific" institutes also advance conspiracies about climate scientists. They get money from fossil fuel interests to do this dirty work. The American foundations and "scientific" institutes typically claim that global warming doesn't exist, that it exists but is not caused by man, and that global warming is not a big problem.

It seems that climate scientists are accused of making up global warming that doesn't exist and of causing global warming with climate weapons. Global Warming conspiracists do not have a scientific consensus about the "plots" of climate scientists.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (7-30-10) telephoned the Russian scholar/conspiracist Andrei Areshev, who now characterizes his defamatory article (7-27-10) about U.S. scientists using secret "climate weapons" as a "theory."

Dr. Areshev says he doesn't know anything about Russian "climate weapons" because he's "not a member of the government," but he's not a member of the American government, either.

Responsible scholars help mankind solve our problems, but Dr. Areshev seems to be creating extra problems by sowing distrust. I think the world needs help from Russian scientists, not Russian conspiracists who don't know what they're talking about!

Here is the RFE/RL (7-30-10) article, which is currently the most viewed article on the site:

July 30, 2010

By Ashley Cleek

As Muscovites suffer record high temperatures this summer, a Russian political scientist has claimed the United States may be using climate-change weapons to alter the temperatures and crop yields of Russia and other Central Asian countries.

In a recent article, Andrei Areshev, deputy director of the Strategic Culture Foundation, wrote, "At the moment, climate weapons may be reaching their target capacity and may be used to provoke droughts, erase crops, and induce various anomalous phenomena in certain countries."

The article has been carried by publications throughout Russia, including "International Affairs," a journal published by the Foreign Ministry and by the state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.

In an telephone interview with RFE/RL, Areshev appeared to back off from claims he made in the article, saying that he was merely positing a theory.

"First of all, I would like to say that what I wrote in that article, even the citations, does not in any way claim to a be final truth. It is, if you will, speculation, in other words, the definition of an hypothesis," Areshev said.

Moscow is currently sweltering under record temperatures. On July 29 Moscow suffered its hottest day ever, with temperatures hitting 39 degrees.

But Russia isn't the only country suffering form a heat wave this summer. Indeed, the United States is also experiencing record temperatures. On July 24, temperatures in Washington, D.C., hit 37.7 degrees, and local weather services issued heat warnings for the first time this summer.

Areshev agrees that it is also hot in the United States, but notes that the United States is significantly farther south than Russia, meaning that such high temperatures are not so surprising there.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, however, announced in July that land and ocean temperatures throughout the world were the highest ever, since they began tracking global temperatures in 1880.

Conspiracy Theories

In the article, Areshev voiced suspicions about the High-Frequency Active Aural Research Program (HAARP), funded by the U.S. Defense Department and the University of Alaska.

HAARP, which has long been the target of conspiracy theorists, analyzes the ionosphere and seeks to develop technologies to improve radio communications, surveillance, and missile detection.

Areshev writes, however, that its true aim is to create new weapons of mass destruction "in order to destabilize environmental and agricultural systems in local countries."

Areshev's article also references an unmanned spacecraft X-37B, an orbital test vehicle the Pentagon launched in April 2010. The Pentagon calls X-37B a prototype for a new "space plane" that could take people and equipment to and from space stations. Areshev, however, alleges that the X-378 carries "laser weaponry" and could be a key component in the Pentagon's climate-change arsenal.

The Pentagon was not immediately reachable for comment.

Areshev also cites the U.S. government's effort to use rain and cloud coverage to block the Vietnam Army's supply routes during the Vietnam War. He insisted, however, that he was not a conspiracy theorist.

"My comments were not made in order to accuse the U.S., or any other country, of consciously influencing Russia," Areshev said. "That would be quite ridiculous."

Asked whether or not Russia was also experimenting with climate-control methods, Areshev said since he was not a member of the government, he did not have information about such projects.