At the height of the Cold War, Chapayevsk, a town of 70,000, was home to four factories which churned out chemical weapons and other toxic munitions.
The town has triple the region’s average rate of reported cancers and tuberculosis, a statistic the mayor attributes to the legacy of toxic waste produced by the factories.
This week in an interview with a local paper, he said the ideal solution would be the closure of the town and relocation of all its inhabitants.
Sam Bond