AFF/THREAT REDUCTION: EXTENSIONS

KEEPING NON-PROLIFERATION ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS WITH RUSSIA IS CRITICAL TO OVERALL USA-RUSSIA RELATIONS

Michael McFaul, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an assistant professor at Stanford University. April 11, 2001, The New York Times SECTION: Section A; Page 23;  HEADLINE: A Step Backward on Nuclear Cooperation //VT2002acsln

These programs are also crucial to maintaining open channels between the United States and Russia at a time when other opportunities for cooperation are disappearing. Without question, Mr. Putin's negative activities in other areas -- whether stifling the independent press or trading weapons with Iran -- will make it more difficult to have meaningful and positive relations. In fact, cuts in some assistance programs to the Russian state (though not to Russian civil society, as in programs that support the development of an independent press) may be appropriate. But reducing nonproliferation programs as a reaction to objectionable Russian behavior in other areas makes no sense and is contrary to American security interests.

PROGRAMS TO DEAL WITH RUSSIAN NUCLEAR MATERIALS WILL DEMAND EXTENSIVE PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP

St. Louis Post-Dispatch January 11, 2001, SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A4 HEADLINE: U.S. PANEL RECOMMENDS SPENDING $ 30 BILLION ON NUCLEAR SECURITY IN RUSSIA//VT2002acsln

The report urged Bush and the new Congress to give the Russian nuclear proliferation concerns top priority.

"If there is going to be attention paid (to this issue), there has to be a very strong presidential leadership," said former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., a panel member. Hamilton has been mentioned as a possible Bush choice for United Nations ambassador.

Russia has an estimated 40,000 nuclear weapons and more than 1,000 metric tons of nuclear material, including highly enriched uranium and plutonium scattered at facilities across Russia, many of them with inadequate security.

The problem has been compounded by the thousands of Russian nuclear weapons scientists who are out of work or on meager incomes "and may be tempted to sell their expertise" to other nations or terrorist groups, the report says.