Over a thousand employees of the Baikal...

On January 13, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a resolution excluding the production of pulp, paper and cardboard from the list of operations banned in the Baikal natural territory. Environmentalists decried the move and are planning to appeal to President Dmitry Medvedev.

"A total of 1,081 people have been employed and are working [at the Baikal mill]..., and several hundred people are in the process of applying," Arkady Akimov said, adding that dozens of people were being taken on daily.

The plant"s private shareholders had spent some 1 billion rubles ($33 mln) on wages and benefits for the employees, thermal and electricity supplies to Baikalsk where the mill is located and work to restart the plant, Akimov said.

He assured reporters that wages would be paid regularly.

Valery Pintayev, the mayor of Baikalsk, home to 17,000 people, said some 2,000 residents had worked at the plant before it was closed. However, he said, taking into account

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