The Baikal Experiment: Status Report

We review the present status of the Baikal Neutrino Project. The construction and performance of the large deep underwater Cherenkov detector for muons and neutrinos, NT-200, which is currently under construction in Lake Baikal are described. Some results obtained with the first stages of NT-200 - NT-36 (1993-95), NT-72 (1995-96) and NT-96 (1996-97) - are presented, including the first clear neutrino candidates selected with 1994 and 1996 data.