A U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) delegation recentlyvisited Moscow to add additional funding to the CooperativeThreat Reduction (CTR) Program in Russia. The delegation alsoreviewed the status of ongoing CTR projects.

The delegation included the Deputy Assistant to theSecretary of Defense for CTR Programs Roland Lajoie, SpecialCoordinator for Cooperative Threat Reduction Laura Holgate, and ateam of DoD experts. Holgate concluded and signed fouramendments to current agreement with Russian Ministries whichare partners with DoD in the development of CTR projects.

These four amendments apply additional funds in the amountof USD 209.3 million in FY97 CTR funds and USD 5 million inpreviously unobligated FY96 funds for a total of USD 214.3million in new funds applied to agreements with Russia. Thefollowing amendments were signed during the period April 8through April 11, 1997:

- The value of assistance to the WeaponsProtection, Control, and Accounting Program was increased by USD15 million to a total of USD 116 million by the signing of anamendment to the Nuclear Weapons Storage Security agreement byHolgate and Lieutenant General Valynkin of the Ministry ofDefense (MoD).

- An amendment to the CTR agreement providingassistance in the construction of a storage facility for fissilematerial derived from dismantled nuclear weapons was signed byHolgate and Deputy Minister Makarov of the Ministry of AtomicEnergy (MinAtom) to increase the value of CTR assistance from USD84 million to USD 150 million.

- Holgate signed an amendment to the Destruction ofChemical Weapons Agreement with Mr. Syutkin of the President's Committee on ConventionalProblems of Chemical and Biological Weapons of the Russian Federation to increase thevalue of CTR assistance from USD 68 million to USD 136.5 million.This amendment also delegated responsibility to MoD to act onbehalf of the Russian federation regarding the Russianorganophosphorus agent-filled artillery munitions destructionfacility project.

- An amendment to the Elimination of StrategicOffensive Arms Agreement was signed by Holgate and Minister ofDefense Industries Pak to increase the value of CTR assistancefrom USD 231 million to USD 295.8 million. This includes USD 5million of previously unobligated FY96 CTR funds.

Through the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, theU.S. has provided assistance in the form of equipment, services,and technical advice to Russia, Belarus, Kazakstan, and Ukraineused in the dismantlement of strategic delivery systems and inthe consolidation of nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union.The bulk of this assistance is implemented by the U.S. Departmentof Defense as a program not of altruistic charity, but based onhard-nosed considerations of national and international security.By helping to eliminate and secure former Soviet weapons of massdestruction, DoD and its partners ensure that the requirements ofthe hard-won treaties negotiated in recent years are met, thatweapons are controlled in a safe and secure manner, and that non-proliferation goals are maintained.

Over the last five years, the CTR program has notified overUSD 1.8 billion to Congress for use in Russia, Belarus,Kazakstan, and Ukraine. Over USD 1.2 billion has been obligatedfor this program, and spending rates have increased steadilysince the program's inception in FY92. The addition of USD 209.3million in FY97 CTR funds raises the amount of CTR funds appliedto Russian projects to slightly over USD 1.1 billion.

Lajoie and the team of DoD experts followed up the signingwith a comprehensive review of the status of ongoing CTR projectswith Russian counterparts at MoD, MinAtom, Ministry of DefenseIndustries and the President's Committee on Conventional Problemsof Chemical and Biological Weapons. DoD and Russian technicalexperts meet very routinely both in Russia and in the UnitedStates to evaluate Russian requirements, to develop CTRassistance projects, and to monitor project implementation.

DoD and the Russian MoD have been working together since1992 under the Weapons Protection, Control, and Accounting(WPC&A) Program in the joint development of projects which haveprovided armored blankets, security upgrade kits for nuclearweapons railcars, emergency response equipment, and 150supercontainers to enhance security during the transportation ofnuclear weapons, and which will provide a computerized weaponsstockpile system, security upgrades at weapons storage sites, anda drug and alcohol monitoring program for the weapons guard forcein order to upgrade security at MoD weapons storage sites.

In partnership with the Ministry of Atomic Energy, DoD isassisting in the construction of a storage facility for fissilematerial derived from dismantled nuclear weapons. Located at theMayak Production Facility in Chelyabinsk, the Fissile MaterialStorage Facility is currently under construction and will be ableto start accepting fissile material containers for storage inearly 1999. It will be able to store 50,000 fissile materialcontainers.

Under the Chemical Weapons Destruction Program, DoD isworking with the President's Committee on Conventional Problemsof Chemical and Biological Weapons and the Ministry of Defense inthe development of a chemical weapons destruction process andmunitions processing equipment, upgrading a central analyticallaboratory, and the eventual construction of a chemical weaponsdestruction facility.

Under the Strategic Offensive Arms Elimination Program, DoDin cooperation with Russia's Ministry of Defense Industries hasdeveloped a number of projects which assist Russia with strategicoffensive arms elimination including the dismantlement of: long-range bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles and missilelaunchers, and submarine launched ballistic missile launchers andstrategic missile submarines, and the elimination of liquidrocket fuel. Thanks in part to CTR support for these projects,Russia is well ahead of schedule in eliminating delivery systemsas required in the START I Treaty.

-END-