Just imagine… a hypothetical news release from 50 years hence.

Communities across Polissya are this week celebrating Chernobyl Days, the festival that marks the renaissance of the Chernobyl region since it was resettled in June 2040. With the pan-Slavic Soviet this year chairing the European Confederation, representatives of all 90 territories in the continent-wide confederation teleported into Kiev early this morning before taking a virtual tour of the Polissya forests once so terribly afflicted by radioactivity.

Polissya now boasts Europe’s largest national park, a region of remarkable biodiversity with more bear, wolves and bison than any other area of Europe. The success of the European Confederation’s resettlement programme, with 40,000 settlers housed in three dozen model communities across the Chernobyl region, has attracted worldwide acclaim. During their tour this morning, the visitors saw seven of the model villages, including the French speaking vegan settlement at Paradiso and the Scottish village of Hopedale.

European Confederation Convenor Hans-Peter Albersson, speaking in his native French, said that today’s visit to Polissya gave him hope for the ongoing programme for resettling Scotland, a region of the confederation rendered uninhabitable by the nuclear catastrophe of 2012.

Albersson used the opportunity of the Kiev meeting to announce further grants of over sixty billion roubles to environmental initiatives across the confederation. The awards include further subventions to the Icelandic wine industry and a special assistance grant to parts of Switzerland affected by desertification. Pan-Slavic Soviet treasurer Patrick Owenovsky said that the eastern states had been pleased to provide the bulk of the funding for the confederation’s programmes this year. “Since the rouble became the confederation’s sole currency in 2043, we have proudly shouldered our obligation to support the poorer western territories in the federation,” said Owenovsky.

Kiev, 3 June 2060

Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
(hidden europe)