Proroga accordo Russia-USA

[rossana <rossana at comodinoposta.org>]

Prolungato di 7 anni l' accordo sul programma per la sicurezza delle 
testate nucleari, chimiche e batteriologiche dell’arsenale ex sovietico.
Il "Programma di cooperazione per la riduzione della minaccia con la 
Russia" è ancora oggi il progetto di disarmo più impegnativo e costoso 
sulla scena mondiale: avviato 14 anni fa dopo la fine della Guerra 
Fredda, l’accordo ha portato allo smantellamento di migliaia di testate, 
missili e bombe, contribuendo al tempo stesso ai progressi nella 
sicurezza sulle armi chimiche e batteriologiche.


U.S., Russia Break Impasse on Plan to Keep Arms From Rogue Users

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 20, 2006; Page A11

The United States and Russia reached a last-minute agreement saving a 
program to secure or destroy Soviet nuclear warheads, chemical weapons 
and killer germs, U.S. officials said yesterday, breaking a long logjam 
and averting a rupture weeks before President Bush travels to St. 
Petersburg.

The program, a multibillion-dollar effort designed to keep weapons of 
mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists or rogue states, was set 
to expire Friday amid a stubborn disagreement over legal provisions. But 
U.S. and Russian officials cut a deadline deal in Moscow on Friday that 
will extend the program for seven years and effectively take the issue 
off the table for Bush's trip.



Although overshadowed by disputes with Iran and North Korea, the 
Cooperative Threat Reduction program with Russia represents the most 
expansive disarmament effort in the world and the prospect that it could 
be halted deeply worried arms-control specialists. The program, which 
began 14 years ago after the Cold War ended, has deactivated thousands 
of warheads, missiles and bombers and made progress toward securing 
biological and chemical weapons.

But the work has gone slower than hoped and Russia still maintains 
thousands of additional aging nuclear warheads as well as vast 
stockpiles of other weapons that specialists fear are vulnerable to 
theft or sale on the international black market. U.S. contractors in 
Russia would have had to shut down activities if Friday's agreement had 
not been signed by U.S. Ambassador William J. Burns and Russian Deputy 
Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak.

"The extension of the umbrella agreement is critical," said Raphael 
Della Ratta, a weapons specialist at the Russian American Nuclear 
Security Advisory Council. Without it, "nuclear weapons delivery systems 
would not be dismantled, chemical weapons would remain unsecured and 
undestroyed and biological pathogens would remain unsecured as well."

At the same time, he and other experts have complained that the Bush 
administration has not shown sufficient urgency about eliminating 
Russian arms. "We are in a race against time to secure these materials 
before they're lost, stolen or get into the wrong hands," said Daryl G. 
Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. "This is a 
necessary but insufficient step. The administration needs to push down 
the accelerator in terms of the pace of work."

A senior administration official said the extension should help propel 
efforts to eliminate old Soviet weapons. "This reinvigorates and 
strengthens the ongoing cooperation we've been doing with Russia," said 
the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.

The extension had been held up for years mainly by a dispute over 
liability. Under the original agreement, Russia was responsible for any 
mishaps, even accidents or negligence by U.S. contractors. Russia has 
balked at that provision. The renewal keeps the original language for 
current projects but will address Russian concerns for future projects. 
It does not affect a separate plutonium-disposal program announced in 
1998 but never started because of a similar dispute.

A collapse of the Cooperative Threat Reduction program would have marred 
Bush's visit to St. Petersburg next month for the Group of Eight summit. 
The meeting will be the group's first held by Russia, which is eager to 
use the occasion to showcase its reemergence on the world stage as a 
major power.

Critics say Russia has no business hosting an organization of industrial 
democracies at a time when President Vladimir Putin has constricted 
political freedoms at home and used energy resources to flex muscles 
abroad. Bush has maneuvered to avoid the image that he is endorsing 
Putin's course by attending the summit.

Vice President Cheney recently criticized Russian actions, and the 
administration will send two assistant secretaries of state, Daniel 
Fried and Barry Lowenkron, to a pre-summit meeting to discuss human 
rights in Russia. Bush also announced yesterday that he will host 
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili at the White House shortly before 
the summit as a statement of solidarity with Russian neighbors under 
pressure from Moscow.

The Cooperative Threat Reduction agreement was reached in 1992 at the 
instigation of Sens. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) and Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and 
was renewed in 1999. Since then, it has deactivated or destroyed 6,828 
nuclear warheads, 612 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 885 nuclear 
air-to-surface missiles, 577 submarine-launched missiles, 155 bombers 
and 29 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, among others, 
according to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

But it still has much to do. About half of the nuclear warheads, ICBMs, 
ICBM silos, submarine-launched missiles and nuclear submarines targeted 
by the program have yet to be eliminated, according to the agency. A 
chemical-weapons destruction facility is more than 60 percent unfinished 
and the Government Accountability Office reported that it may not open 
by 2009.

Lugar hailed the extension but called on Congress to remove other 
conditions that threaten the program: "If the proliferation of weapons 
of mass destruction is the number one national security threat facing 
our country, we cannot permit any delays in our response."