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VLADIMIR PUTIN: NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE AND WILL BE BASIS OF RUSSIA'S SECURITY

SAROV /the Nizhny Novgorod Region /, July 31st, 2003. /From a RIA Novosti correspondent/ -- Russian President Vladimir Putin conducted a meeting with scientists of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center in the town of Sarov in the Nizhny Novgorod Region 500 kilometers south from Moscow. The Russian President said that nuclear weapons had always been and would remain the basis for Russia's security. He also stressed that "it is important to maintain safety and stability of combat systems." According to Vladimir Putin, quality of the Russia's nuclear weapons "must meet the strictest universality, efficiency and safety requirements." He pointed out that "Russian scientific nuclear centers must work as effectively as possible to be able to carry out a widest range of scientific and research as well as research and development tasks." According to Vladimir Putin, "the Sarov Nuclear Center is the place where one can find gifts and knowledge of many generations of outstanding scientists and engineers." This intellectual and technical stock "must serve the state," the Russian President said.

Vladimir Putin also said that the developments of the Center "must be used in many fields, for instance, for civil purposes, the most up-to-date nuclear technologies must be used for peaceful purposes." Vladimir Putin stressed that developments and projects of the Sarov Nuclear Center based on modern military technologies were being used in different industrial sectors. The developments and projects can successfully compete with foreign ones at foreign market, the Russian President emphasized.

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