During the cold war arms race, the former Soviet Union built and operated a large fleet of nuclear powered submarines. As a result the Kola Peninsula, adjacent to the Norwegian border along the Barents Sea, has the highest concentration of nuclear reactors in the world. Eighteen percent of the world's nuclear reactors are located there. With 69 retired submarines still containing nuclear fuel, along with 60 operating nuclear submarines, the danger of catastrophic radioactive contamination is great, especially from eroded and leaking submarines and accidents in radioactive waste storage facilities.

Until 1985 Alexander Nikitin was a naval captain in the Soviet Northern Fleet, where he served as chief engineer on nuclear powered submarines. From 1987 to 1992 he worked for the Department of Defense as the senior inspector for its Nuclear and Radiation Safety Inspection Department. After he left the Navy, Nikitin felt obliged to reveal to the world the potential for nuclear catastrophe and to help Russia handle its fleet of decommissioned nuclear submarines.

Nikitin joined the Bellona Foundation, a Norwegian non-governmental organization addressing northwestern Russia's formidable environmental problems. As a specialist with first-hand knowledge of the issue and the region, Nikitin provided detailed information and was able to map the region's radioactive sources.

In 1996 Nikitin co-authored a report entitled, "The Russian Northern Fleet - Sources of Radioactive Contamination," preparing a section about Soviet nuclear submarine accidents and safety problems of naval reactor installations. In 1995 Bellona's Russian office was ransacked by the Federal Security Police (FSB) - the successors to the KGB - and all references for the report were confiscated. Nikitin was trying to reconstruct the report when he was suddenly arrested in February 1996. He was imprisoned on charges of high treason and devulging of state secrets for his work on the report, even though this information had been published elsewhere. He was told that he had violated Defense Ministry secret decrees, but was not informed what these laws were.

This report is currently the only publication in Russia that is officially banned. During his first six weeks in prison Nikitin was denied the opportunity to choose his own lawyer. He was held in solitary confinement and denied bail. On December 14, 1996 the Attorney General released Nikitin from prison and his case was sent back to the FSB for further investigation. After his release, he was not permitted to leave St. Petersburg. After several months, the FSB completed its investigation and filed additional charges of treason - seven in total - against Nikitin. According to legal experts, he is the only Russian citizen ever to be charged so many times with the same crime. After Nikitin filed for his case to be dismissed, the Prosecutor General's office issued a statement saying that the usage of secret military decrees applied retroactively against him is a violation of the Russian constitution. These decrees were central to the FSB's case against Nikitin. In the meanwhile, Nikitin and his family have been followed and harassed. In June 1998, Nikitin's case was transferred to the City Court of St. Petersburg.