By Lidia Kelly
MOSCOW (Reuters) - More than 2,000 people protested on Saturday at the decision to reopen a paper mill that was mothballed in 2008 over concerns it was polluting Lake Baikal.
An equal number, including some bussed in by the authorities, rallied alongside them in the Siberian city of Irkutsk to hail the government's decision last month to restart Baikalsk Pulp & Paper Mill, restoring 2,000 jobs.
The loss-making plant, which is the main employer for the 17,000 inhabitants of nearby town of Baikalsk, was shut in October 2008 after the government ordered it to install a system for drainage away from the world's largest freshwater lake.
Environmentalists say the waste from the plant, situated on the shoreline, contains harmful substances that destroy the lake's wildlife -- 1,500 species of animals and plants, including a unique type of freshwater seal.
"We came here to show that people are against," Marina Rikhanova, head of Baikal Ecological Wave, which organized the protest, told Reuters by telephone.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signaled in August his willingness to lift the restrictions that prevented the plant from dumping waste into the lake after diving to the bed of the lake and consulting with scientists..
The decision to reopen the Soviet-era mill is seen as a part of the government's broader support for Russia's single industry towns, often in remote from the larger cities.
"People gathered today to cheer the government's program," a spokeswoman for the mill told Reuters. "Without government support, mono-towns cannot exist."
The government owns 49 percent of the mill. Tycoon Oleg Deripaska owns a minority stake.
A spokeswoman said the plant was expected to reopen by the end of February.
Lake Baikal holds a fifth of the world's total surface fresh water and remains sacred for some Siberian tribes.
(Editing by Alison Williams)
