|
|
#11
Chechen rebels trying to obtain nuclear warhead,
Russian military tell US visitors
ITAR-TASS
Moscow, 30 January: Chechen terrorists have not given up trying to get hold
of a nuclear warhead from the arsenals of the Russian armed forces, Col-Gen Igor
Volynkin, head of the 12th Main Directorate of the Russian Defence Ministry,
told journalists at a reception for a US Department of Defence delegation at
training centre No 84 of the Russian Defence Ministry, located in Sergiyev Posad,
Moscow Region.
According to the general, "operational reports indicate that Chechen
terrorists intend to get hold of an important military facility or a nuclear
warhead in order to threaten not just our country but the whole world".
According to the head of the US delegation, chief of the Directorate of
Nuclear Facilities Safety at the US Defence Department (?Thomas Koenig),
"Russian experience in organizing the protection of nuclear facilities has
proved very useful". "We realize full well that with the possible
start of a military operation against Iraq the risk of nuclear terrorism in USA
will increase," he noted. "That is why we are now stepping up security
measures at our facilities," Koenig told journalists.
A special training base was operating at Russian Defence Ministry's training
centre No 84 for nuclear safety specialists between February 1998 and November
2000 as part of the implementation of a Russian-US programme for joint threat
reduction, with the support of the Gore-Chernomyrdin commission and US senators
Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar. In the past three years, 3,000 devices for ensuring
security of nuclear weapons were tested there, including Russian, US, Israeli,
French and Italian ones. In terms of efficiency, repairability and other
indicators, 70 per cent of Russian devices were deemed most reliable. In
November 2002, in the course of Russia-US talks in Sergiyev Posad, an agreement
was reached on US help in personnel training for guarding 68 atomic
weapons-related facilities in Russia.
BACK TO THE TOP  #242 CONTENTS NEXT ARTICLE
|
|
