Early Hopes

The collapse of the Soviet Union created hopes that American-Russian relations would be warm and broad-based. These hopes have been dashed by exaggerated expectations, unsuccessful economic programs, and the revival of old suspicions.

After the demise of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the Bush Administration immediately reached out to Russia in an effort to establish cooperative relations. While promising Boris Yeltsin aid in return for political and free market economic reforms within Russia, President Bush initiated efforts to increase U.S. security by improving the control and accountability for nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union and by moving toward reducing nuclear weapons in both countries.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, nuclear weapons were deployed in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. The U.S. Congress, recognizing the increased dangers, created and funded the bipartisan Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program – also know as Nunn-Lugar for its original Senate sponsors – to help Russia in dismantling weapons on its territory and to aid in gathering nuclear weapons from the other former Soviet republics in order to place them under Russian control. But concern soon arose over the uncertain control of nuclear weapons and fissile material within Russia. Russia's deep economic troubles have severely undermined the nation's military and left its nuclear scientists unpaid or unemployed.

This has led U.S. officials to fear that Russians with access to nuclear materials might steal and sell nuclear materials to relieve their desperate financial situation. For this reason, the CTR program was expanded to create new research opportunities for Russia's nuclear weapons specialists; to provide assistance in transporting, storing, and dismantling nuclear weapons; and to improve the safe storage of

nuclear materials. To date, the U.S. has spent some $1.6 billion in the CTR program. There is general agreement that this is money well spent.

Military “Close to Ruin” “Not since 1941 has the Russian military stood as perilously close to ruin as it does now....If Russia’s mammoth military-industrial establishment were to collapse–a distinct possibility in the next few years–the consequences would be not less devastating than were the events of June 1941 [German invasion], and not only for Russia but for the entire world.” Alexei G. Arbatov Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Defense Russian Duma (Parliament) International Security Spring 1998 The Nunn-Lugar program has facilitated the destruction of 339 ballistic missiles, 286 ballistic missile launchers, 37 bombers, 96 submarine missile launchers, and 30 submarine launched ballistic missiles. Most notably, 4,838 warheads that were on strategic systems aimed at the United States have been deactivated.

In 1998 the U.S. Department of Energy initiated a new program called the Second Line of Defense, the goal of which is to assist Russia in preventing the smuggling of nuclear material and weapons at its borders, either by land, sea or air. The task of preventing the dispersal of Russian nuclear materials is daunting: Russia is the world’s largest country (almost twice the size of the U.S.) and borders 14 other countries. This vast territory makes it all the more difficult to ensure that nuclear detection equipment is properly placed, installed, and monitored.

In addition, the Bush Administration persuaded Russia to join with the U.S. in reducing the number of strategic nuclear weapons to between 3,000 and 3,500 in the future. In January 1993, the U.S. and