An article in the Russian edition of Forbes magazine this week somewhat facetiously considered the tourism potential of Russia’s secretive and tightly secured closed cities.
“In today’s Russia there are 42 closed administrative territorial entities — or ZATOs — surrounded by rows of barbed wire and guarded by armed patrols. They belong to the Ministry of Defense, Rosatom (State Corporation for Atomic Energy), and Roskosmos (Federal Space Agency),” the article (in Russian) said.
“A special pass is needed in order to gain access to the territory of a ZATO. This is most readily available to anyone who has close relatives resident in a closed city. A pass is also issued to people who have got a job in a ZATO or who have found themselves a husband or a wife among the local residents.”
“But there are also more circuitous routes, of course. From time to time some ZATOs stage cultural and sports events to which outside participants are invited. But the most desperate simply find holes in the fence or steal their way into a city along secret paths. In this context, admittedly, consideration has to be given to the fact that gaining unlawful access to the territory of a ZATO carries the risk of administrative punishment in the form of a fine and immediate expulsion from the territory.”
“Forbes has selected 10 closed cities in Russia that are worth a visit. Or at least worth the attempt.” The profiled cities include Krasnoyarsk, Zelenogorsk, Kapustin Yar, Lesnoy, Mirnyy, Novouralsk, Ozersk, Sarov, Severomorsk, and Snezhinsk.
The enticing Snezhinsk “is full of mysterious artifacts that have been preserved from Soviet times: structures whose purpose is unknown, ventilation pipes that protrude from the ground in the very heart of the city, tunnels leading off into the unknown.”
The 2008 book “A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry” by Nathan Hodge and Sharon Weinberger included a chapter on Russia’s closed cities.
Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed revoking its 2009 “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gases pose a substantial threat to the public. The Federation of American Scientists stands in strong opposition.
Modernizing ClinicalTrials.gov will empower patients, oncologists, and others to better understand what trials are available, where they are available, and their up-to-date eligibility criteria, using standardized search categories to make them more easily discoverable.
The Federation of American Scientists supports H.R. 4420, the Cool Corridors Act of 2025, which would reauthorize the Healthy Streets program through 2030 and seeks to increase green and other shade infrastructure in high-heat areas.
The current lack of public trust in AI risks inhibiting innovation and adoption of AI systems, meaning new methods will not be discovered and new benefits won’t be felt. A failure to uphold high standards in the technology we deploy will also place our nation at a strategic disadvantage compared to our competitors.