Russian court rules on Chernobyl aid

MOSCOW, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- A Russian court says the country must compensate former soldiers suffering the aftereffects of the emergency operations during the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Russia's Constitutional Court reviewed amendments to the 1995 law on social protection of citizens who suffered from radiation following the Chernobyl accident, RIA Novosti reported.

The amendments, introduced in 2001, had changed the methods of compensation, leaving some Chernobyl veterans without additional payments introduced by the amendments because they already had fixed pensions for disability by that time.

"The compensation [as percentage of salaries rather than a fixed amount] must be paid not only to those citizens who applied before the revised law came into force on February 12, 2001, but also for those who applied afterwards," the court said in a statement.

Any changes in the laws should not create a violation of the constitutional principle of the equality of rights, the court said.

An estimated 200,000 Russians, mostly military personnel, took part in the cleanup of the area after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, and many of them died or suffer from various diseases due to excessive doses of radiation received while working at the site, RIA Novosti said.