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RANSAC Nuclear News, September 2, 2003 Compiled By: RANSAC Staff A. Submarine Dismantlement/K-159 Accident
 A. Submarine Dismantlement/K-159 Accident 1. Few Clues as Sub Hunt Goes On Navy vessels plowed the rough and cold waters of the Barents Sea above the sunken K-159 submarine Monday in what the Northern Fleet described as a "search operation" -- despite an admiral's admission that the missing seven crewmembers were probably trapped inside the sub. Four rescue vessels and three warships were involved in the search, Northern Fleet spokesman Vladimir Navrotsky said Monday. Navy aircraft also were scouring the shores of nearby Kildin Island, he told Interfax. The Project 627A (NATO codename: November) sank 5.5 kilometers northwest of Kildin off the Kola Peninsula on Saturday. The decommissioned nuclear submarine was being towed from the Gremikha base to a scrapyard in Polyarny when steel cables strapping it to four pontoons snapped in rough waters. The submarine sank at 2:00 a.m. Three of the submarine's crewmembers were later plucked out of the water. Only one of them, Lieutenant Maxim Tsibulsky, survived. The remaining seven sailors most probably went down with the mothballed submarine, which is laying at a depth of 238 meters, navy chief of staff Admiral Viktor Kravchenko told a select pool of Russian reporters in Moscow on Monday. Kravchenko, offering the first explanation as to why a crew had been on board the submarine at all, said they were making sure the submarine's compartments remained waterproof. He said pre-voyage tests at the Gremikha base had indicated that they were waterproof. Kravchenko said it remained unclear why the seven missing crewmembers apparently had not abandoned the submarine. The submarine went down with its conning tower open, and Strana.ru reported that Monday that the towing ship had radioed the crew to leave 40 minutes before the sinking. Kravchenko said the submarine, which has a displacement of 3,000 tons, was not an environmental hazard, saying its reactor was shut down and sealed when it was decommissioned in 1989. He said the vessel will be retrieved and scrapped, but not earlier than next year and without the assistance of foreign companies. Russian television showed hazy images of the sunken submarine filmed by an underwater robot. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Sunday that the submarine was not being towed in accordance with navy rules but maintained that the 10-member crew was not to blame. Military prosecutors, who are investigating the accident, have asked Ivanov to suspend the commander of the Gremikha base's decommissioned submarines unit, Sergei Zhemchuzhnov, which he did Sunday. A retired submarine commander raised questions Monday about the official explanation of the accident. Igor Kurdin, chairman of the St. Petersburg Club of Submariners, said he strongly doubted that the submarine had a working generator and ventilators to run the waterproof tests at the base. He said it was odd that a crew was then needed to watch out for leaks since they would have been unable to do anything in the event of a leak. Kurdin said an old submarine like the K-159 should have had a mooring crew on deck to monitor the pontoons during the trip but no sailors inside. Kravchenko referred to the K-159 sailors as the "mooring crew," and Kurdin said he was puzzled to hear this. He said he usually had three -- but never 10 -- sailors when he served as a mooring crew commander for six of his 20 years in the navy. The decay of the infrastructure at Gremikha -- a one-time submarine base that was downgraded to a junkyard after the breakup of the Soviet Union -- might have led to the accident as well, Kurdin said. In Soviet times, Gremikha had the equipment to unload the fuel, seal the submarine and fill its canisters with a buoyant substance that ensured it could be safely towed to a scrapyard with no crew on board, he said. Apart from Kravchenko's restricted news conference and the Northern Fleet spokesman's comments to local news agencies, there was little opportunity for reporters on Monday to fill in the holes in the official accounts of the tragedy. The rescued sailor was kept under wraps at a Northern Fleet hospital, and his father complained Monday on television that he has not been able to visit his son yet. Return to Menu 2. NS K-159 reactor shutdown measures ensure nuclear safety, Minatom says Measures carried out to shutdown K-159 nuclear submarine�s reactors fully ensure nuclear safety and completely exclude the possibility of self-sustained chain reaction, as Nuclear.Ru was informed by Minatom�s of Russia press-service. August 30 the nuclear submarine sank in the Barents Sea while being towed to the disposition site. K-159 Project 627A was built in 1963 at the Severomorsk-based production association Severnoye Mashinostroitel�noye Predpriyatiye (Northern Machine Building Enterprise) to the design done by St. Petersburg Maritime Machine Design Bureau Malakhit. The reactor plant was developed by Research and Development Institute of Power Engineering named after N.A. Dollezhal (NIKIET, Moscow). The bow and stern reactors were recharged in 1970 and 1972 respectively. When the reactors were ultimately shutdown (October 25, 1988) the cores had worked 95% of the design service life. In 1989 the nuclear submarine was decommissioned and kept waiting for disposition at Gremikha naval base, Murmansk Region. Both reactors were rendered nuclear safe by complete insertion of all reactivity control and CPS rods in the core. The reactor compensating grids were fixed in the lower position with manual grid drives welded. The CPS drive and circulation pump electric motors power supply cables of both reactors were disconnected and cut off. Both reactors primary systems made leaktight. All these measures fully ensure nuclear safety of K-159 and completely exclude the possibility of self-sustained chain reaction. According to the nuclear submarine transfer schedule to the disposition enterprise, K-159 was towed to Nerpa shipyard for de-fueling set for the end of 2003 to be followed by cutting off the reactor compartment in 2004. The nuclear fuel fission products mainly determine accumulated activity in the reactor compartment. The major part of radionuclides have decayed over the 15 years passed since the reactors were shutdown. Presently, the residual activity in the nuclear reactors does not exceed 2.0х105 Curie. The preliminary assessments done has shown that even in the unlikely event of radionuclide release out board the radionuclide content in the sea water in the nuclear submarine sinking location will be insignificant and will not lead to impacts to the sea biota and environmental contamination. Return to Menu 3. Sunken sub not to be raised until next year The derelict nuclear submarine that sank in the fish-rich Barents Sea while en route to a scrapyard can't be raised until at least next year, the Russian navy's deputy chief said Monday. The submarine K-159 sank Saturday during a fierce storm while being towed to a port on the Kola Peninsula where its reactor was to be removed and dismantled and the rest of the ship scrapped. Nine of the 10 men aboard were killed. Navy and Atomic Energy Ministry officials were quoted by Russian news agencies Monday as saying that radiation levels remained normal in the sinking area, some 350 kilometers (200 miles) north of the Arctic Circle where Finland and Norway abut Russia. But environmentalists warned after the sinking that the contamination danger was substantial and the Navy's chief of general staff Adm. Viktor Kravchenko said "the ship must be raised in order to carry out a complete unloading of the reactor." Kravchenko said Monday it would be unfeasible to try to cut the reactor out of the ship, which is lying on its side at a depth of 238 meters (780 feet). Preparatory work is under way for the complex raising operation, he said, but the lifting could not begin before 2004. The raising operation's complexity is likely to be increased by the severe weather that often hits the Barents Sea, where gales sometimes whip up on short notice. The day after the sinking, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov ordered a temporary halt to towing other mothballed submarines to breaker yards, raising the prospect of further delays in Russian efforts to dispose of more than 100 nuclear vessels. Most of the decommissioned ships have sat deteriorating for years in Russian ports, to the alarm of critics who say their reactors could leak or be plundered for nuclear materials by terrorists. The K-159 was attached to pontoons for the towing, which were ripped off by the storm. In addition, its conning tower was open when it went down. Return to Menu 4. Coming clean with submarines Russia seems to be having bad luck with its submarines. First, there was the awful tragedy of the sinking of the Kursk back in 2000, with its great loss of life and reprehensible attempt on the part of officialdom to evade responsibility. Now, that disaster has been repeated by a similar one on a smaller scale � the sinking of the K-159 nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea as it was being towed to a scrapyard, killing an estimated nine people. Its reactors were shut down at the time � thank Heaven for small favors. Watching events subsequent to the Kursk tragedy unfold, it was sickening to see the parade of blame-ducking, finger-pointing and just plain lying the military and government bureaucracy were engaged in. From the reflexive blaming of the wreck on a collision with an American submarine, to President Vladimir Putin's fleeing the limelight on such a critical occasion to desperate attempts by the Navy staff to dodge responsibility � the affair painted the Russian military and governmental elite as a bunch of callous, self-interested reprobates unwilling to do what had to be done. Many men died because of this disregard for human life and dignity. This time around, Navy officials have already been charged with violations of navigation rules. Sources in the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office have specifically named the deputy commander of the submarine division in question as "a person whose actions directly constitute a malfeasance in office," according to Interfax. On the one hand, this could indicate that the Navy is getting better at keeping an eye on its own, or maybe simply that the causes of the current accident are so much more obvious than those that brought about the sinking of the Kursk. Or this may be more of the tired old passing the buck we're so used to, with officials finding the nearest available unfortunate and making him into a scapegoat for their own failings. It is, after all, quite common for an underling to receive the blame when something goes wrong � rarely a higher-up. All this assumes that criminal human error was responsible, not an act of God. Accidents do, happen after all, and we certainly don't want to hang anyone ahead of time for what may just have been the result of catastrophically bad luck. In any case, what is to come out of all this should be based on the results of an unbiased and disinterested inquiry in which there are no attempts at obfuscation or evading the issue. We didn't see much of that in the aftermath of the Kursk disaster. We hope that that was the last time that the Russian military and government decided to act a disgraceful manner while confronting calamities. Return to Menu 5. Nuclear-powered submarine sinks in Barents sea, nine dead An aged Russian nuclear submarine being towed to a scrapyard sank in a gale in the Barents Sea Saturday, killing nine of the 10 crew aboard in an accident that raised concerns of environmental damage and further dented the deteriorating navy's prestige. The storm tore off pontoons attached to the K-159 submarine for its trip to the dismantling point. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov also said the ship's conning tower had been left open and he fired the commander of the submarine divsion that included the K-159. "In addition to objective factors - sea waves - there were subjective one: technical standards of towing were ignored during the voyage," Ivanov said. The two nuclear reactors of the 40-year-old submarine have been shut down since it was decomissioned in 1989 and radiation levels remained normal after it sank about 3 nautical miles (5.5 kilometers) northwest of Kildin Island near the entrance to Kola Bay, Russian military officials said. Navy deputy chief Adm. Viktor Kravchenko said one sailor was rescued and the bodies of two others were pulled out of the 10 C (50 F) waters. Ivanov said Saturday evening that "I'm forced to recognize ... that it is impossible to find any of the remaining seven crew members alive." The Chief Military Prosecutor's Office said Navy officials were being charged with violating navigation rules and "it is already obvious that the Northern Fleet Command broke the law and didn't show enough resolution in carrying out rescue operations," the Interfax news agency reported. Although the navy insisted that the K-159's nuclear reactors posed no environmental hazard, environmentalists quickly warned of a possible radiation leak that could contaminate the busy fishing area. "The risks are very high," Alexander Nikitin, a retired Russian navy captain who heads the St.Petersburg branch of the Bellona Foundation, a Norwegian environmental group, told The Associated Press. Nikitin said that the uranium fuel, which was loaded into the submarine's reactors some 30 years ago, was far more radioactive and dangerous than a fresher load would be. He harshly blamed the navy for moving the crumbling, leaky submarine to the scrapyard some 350 kilometers (190 miles) away from its base, saying that its nuclear reactors should have been removed prior to the journey. "They have chosen the cheapest and the worst option," said Nikitin, whose report on nuclear risks posed by the Russian navy led to his arrest in 1996 and 11-month imprisonment on treason charges. He was acquitted in 1999. The K-159 sank about 4 a.m. (0000 GMT) in waters 170 meters (560 feet) deep after four pontoons attached for the towing operation were ripped of the sub during a battering storm. Retired Adm. Eduard Baltin recalled that the K-159 was already taking water when it made its last mission in 1983. He said on Echo of Moscow radio that the navy shouldn't have placed the crew on the submarine, saying that "it was like putting them in a barrel full of holes." President Vladimir Putin was informed of the accident while on the island of Sardinia for a three-day meeting with Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi. The sinking "testifies to how the sea demands discipline, it does not forgive any kind of blunder or mistake," Putin said while conducting Berlusconi on a tour of a Russian missile cruiser anchored off Sardinia. The tour was apparently intended to boost the prestige of the Russian navy, badly hurt by the August 2000 sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine which killed all 118 men on board. In contrast to the Kursk disaster, when the government issued scarce and conflicting information, the Defense Ministry quickly reported the K-159 accident. "Our military and political leadership has at least learned some lessons from the Kursk tragedy," retired Capt. Igor Kurdin, the head of the St.Petersburg-based Submariners' Club, said in a telephone interview. The Kursk was raised from the Barents Sea floor in October 2001 by a Dutch consortium in an unprecedented salvage effort that cost the Russian government about US$65 million. Ivanov said the K-159 also would be raised. The condition of Russia's aging nuclear submarine fleet has long raised international concern. Russian officials said it will cost an estimated US$3.9 billion to scrap over 100 mothballed nuclear submarines that await destruction. Yet last year, the Russian government budgeted just US$70 million for improving nuclear safety in the country as a whole. The K-159 entered service in 1963. A November-class submarine, it was intended for attacking enemy ships with conventional or low-yield nuclear torpedoes. "It was a workhorse of the Cold War," Kurdin said. A submarine of the same type, the K-8, caught fire and sank in April 1970 in the Bay of Biscay during naval maneuvers, killing 52. Return to Menu 6. Russia Orders Halt to Submarine Towing Russia's defense minister blamed the sinking of a derelict nuclear submarine on a national trait of carelessness and ordered a temporary halt Sunday to the towing of decommissioned subs. The announcement raised the prospect of further delays in efforts to dispose of more than 100 rotting ships and their reactors, which have been a concern to environmentalists. The K-159 submarine sank Saturday in the Barents Sea as it was being towed to an Arctic scrapyard where its reactors were to be removed and dismantled. Nine of the 10 sailors aboard died. "There were definitely elements of this frivolous Russian reliance on chance, that everything will work out," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said from a ship monitoring search operations. The sub went down in a storm, apparently after rough seas ripped off the pontoons that had been attached to it for towing. Russian news reports cited unidentified Navy sources as suggesting the pontoons had been placed improperly and Ivanov said the submarine went to the bottom with its conning tower open. "This confirms yet again the simple truth that all instructions and orders must be taken seriously," he said. Later, after meeting with surviving sailor Lt. Maxim Tsibulsky and families of the dead sailors, he said "I have made a decision to ban the towing of such submarines to scrapyards in such a manner until further notice," according to the Interfax news agency. However, Ivanov also said the men aboard the K-159 were not to blame. "There are no complaints against you ... you were only a witness," Ivanov said in a televised meeting with Tsibulsky, who lay in a Northern Fleet hospital bed appearing healthy but exhausted. Environmentalists have suggested officials were playing down the danger of contamination in the fish-rich waters, but Ivanov said radiation levels were normal. He said the submarine will be raised from the 780-foot seabed but preparations could take several months. Russia has decommissioned about 189 nuclear-powered submarines over the past 15 years but officials say 126 of those still are at docks with nuclear fuel in their reactors, creating international concern about leaks and the possibility of nuclear materials being obtained by other nations or terrorists. It will cost an estimated $3.9 billion to scrap all the subs, Russian officials say. Yet last year, the Russian government budgeted just $70 million for improving nuclear safety in the country as a whole. Ivanov's apparent frustration with procedure violations in the towing echoed the reaction of President Vladimir Putin, who said Saturday "the sea demands discipline." The ship's reactors were reportedly shut down when it was taken out of service, but environmentalist Alexander Nikitin, a former Russian navy captain, said Saturday that the risk of a leak was high. He criticized the Navy for choosing the "cheapest and worst option" by not removing the reactors before towing the boat to the dismantling point. The submarine sank a few miles northwest of Kildin Island off the Kola Peninsula, where Russia abuts Norway and Finland. That is the same general area where the nuclear submarine Kursk, one of Russia's most sophisticated ships, sank almost exactly three years ago after being torn apart by two explosions while on maneuvers, killing all 118 aboard. Return to Menu 7. Russia�s Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov called K-159 event carelessness The Russian Federation Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov called carelessness the main cause of K-159 nuclear submarine tragedy, ITAR-TASS reports. �This event for the umpteenth time confirms the simple truth that all instructions, orders and directives must be treated 100-percent serious,� the Minister said adding that the investigation would be extremely thorough. He also said that according to his information �the towing technical parameters were deviated from and the fact of pontoon break-away was not promptly responded�. The Defense Minister suspended from command the Gremikha nuclear submarine formation�s commander Sergei Zhemchuzhniy. The Russian nuclear submarine tragedy happened in the morning on August 30. The attack nuclear powered submarine K-159 �Kit� (�Whale�) (NATO: November-class) design 627A retired in 1989 was towed from her base in Gremikha to Polyarny submarine disposition site. The storm broke the ropes tying up the N-sub and pontoons to cause the submarine sunk three miles northwest of the isle of Kildin. At the moment there were 10 crew on board. Eventually, one was rescued with two dead bodies found in the water. The sunken submarine was found in the Barents Sea resting on the seabed 238 m down the surface on August 31. Experts believe the submarine poses no danger since the nuclear reactor was shutdown as back as 1989 and weapons dismantled. The radiation situation in the K-159 sinking area of the Barents Sea is normal. Russia�s Black Sea Fleet Commander-in-Chief Eduard Baltin thinks that the cause of K-159 event could be violation of towing procedures. �The submarine could not be towed at all�, said Baltin who was on board of the ship in 1983 to do some studies. According to him, that was the last sail of the submarine. �Even at that time she was sinking: we could manage underwater but on surface she was losing buoyancy�, Commander-in-Chief said. He also expressed his opinion that the submarine should not been towed to the disposition site but seal her, weld all board holes, seal the deck-hatch and weld it. �The people shouldn�t have been there�, Baltin stressed adding that it had been decided to tow the ship with people on board, the emergency and rescue equipment should have been arranged for, and the operation�s command officer should have been designated rather than the towing captain. Return to Menu 8. Norway concerned over Russian submarine accident Environmental Minister Boerge Brende is disappointed over the fact that the Russian authorities failed to inform Norway about the nuclear submarine which sank in the Barents Sea early Saturday morning. Norway and Russia have signed an agreement, under which the two nations are to inform each other of serious accidents. Brende says that although the Saturday's accident may not be classified asserious, since there is not acute danger of pollution, it would have been better to receive the information directly, rather than via the media. -Things like this create uncertainty, and by being informed we would be able to do a better job at informing and reassuring the public about what actually has happened, Brende said. The Norwegian Environmental Minister says he will bring the issue up at a meeting of the Norwegian/Russian environmental commission in October. Return to Menu 9. Radiation levels normal in nuclear submarine disaster area Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has stated that the radiation levels are normal in the Barents Sea where the K-159 nuclear submarine sank. "No changes have been registered in the radiation levels. Therefore, there must not be any reasons for concern," Ivanov told the press on board the missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov on Sunday. Return to Menu 10. Russian navy officials charged after sub sinks Navy officials were charged with violation of navigation rules after a Russian nuclear-powered submarine sank in the Barents Sea on Saturday as it was being towed to a scrapyard. The charges were issued by Chief Military Prosecutor Alexander Savenkov. "The chief military prosecutor named Capt. 2nd Class Sergei Zhemchuzhnov, deputy commander of the submarine division, as a person whose actions directly constitute a malfeasance in office," sources in the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office told Interfax. "It is already obvious that the Northern Fleet command broke the law and didn't show enough resolution in carrying out rescue operations." The K-159 sank three miles from Kildin island at a depth of 170 meters. Its two nuclear reactors were shut down during the sinking and the ammunition was unloaded. The submarine was being carried on four pontoons to a plant in the town of Polyarny for disposal. The pontoons were torn off by a storm and the submarine sank. The sub had 10 crew on board. One of them was rescued, and two others were found dead. Return to Menu 11. Russian submarine sinks in Arctic A spokesman for Russia's Northern Fleet said one of the crew had been rescued and the bodies of two others had been retrieved, the Interfax news agency reports. Russia's Navy chief-of-staff Viktor Kravchenko told the NTV television channel that "the hopes of finding alive the missing are very slight". He added that the vessel would be raised from the seabed "so it can be destroyed". President Vladimir Putin - currently on a visit to Italy - has promised "a thorough investigation" into the incident. The submarine's two nuclear reactors were shut down in 1989 and Russian officials said there were no weapons on board the vessel and no danger of nuclear contamination. The incident comes three years after Russia's worst peacetime naval disaster when all 118 crew of the nuclear submarine Kursk died when it sank in the Barents Sea on 12 August 2000. When the Kursk sank, Russia's Government and military were slow to admit what had happened, and slow to ask for foreign help searching for survivors. This caused an avalanche of protests both in Russia and abroad, seriously denting the popularity of President Putin and the government. The BBC's Damian Grammaticas says that this time at least the government has released information promptly and the Navy's chief-of-staff has already flown to the scene to oversee an investigation into the accident. 'Scrappy' sub The submarine sank at 0400 local time (0200 GMT) about three miles off Kildin Island, in heavy seas. The submarine - a November class K-159 - was on its way to be stripped of its nuclear reactors. The Northern fleet's spokesman said the vessel was being towed on four floating hulls from its base in the town of Gremikha to a plant in the town of Polarnye to be scrapped. He said the vessel became unstable after one of the hulls was torn off in a fierce storm and then sank in waters 170 metres deep. Some experts have expressed doubts about the feasibility of salvaging the vessel. "It is scrap metal and nothing more. It would keep us busy for no less than two years to lift a submarine from that depth," Russia's Rear Admiral Yuriy Senatskiy said. "Moreover, a stormy season is coming. We have no resources for this kind of work. The Kursk has demonstrated that we are absolutely helpless in such matters," he added. A Russian military prosecutor has opened an inquiry into the incident. Rotting fleet Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has decommissioned about 190 nuclear powered submarines. But experts say more than half of them still have nuclear fuel in their reactors. While there are concerns that the nuclear materials could be stolen for extremist groups or other nations, experts say the bigger threat is thought to be the possibility of an accident. The submarines spend years sitting in berths, their hulls rusting, often getting inadequate maintenance. The Russian Government cannot afford to keep them, but it also cannot afford to dispose of them safely, without international assistance. Russian officials estimate it will cost nearly $4 billion to scrap all the vessels - but last year the government budgeted just $70m for improving nuclear safety in the country as a whole. Return to Menu B. Nuclear Smuggling 1. Russian official arrested for trying to sell radioactive material A Russian official in the northern port of Murmansk suspected of trafficking radioactive material has been arrested in a joint operation by police and the FSB security services, a police source told AFP Thursday. Alexander Tiulyakov, deputy director of state-owned Atomflot, which carries out repair work on Russian nuclear-powered ice-breakers based in Murmansk, tried to sell a substance believed to be radioactive, the source said. The buyer was a trafficker who had received an order from a client in one of the three former Soviet Baltic states, the police source added. Russian experts in the Murmansk region are conducting tests currently to establish the exact nature of the confiscated substance. Another informed source said that police had searched Tiulyakov's apartment, office and garage after his arrest and had found several firearms and ammunition. The official faces up to 10 years in prison for trafficking radioactive material and illegal weapons possession. In July 1999, two mechanics from the Russian nuclear fleet were arrested in Saint Petersburg for trying to sell mercury and californium, a radioactive element derived from plutonium, which they had stolen from Murmansk. Return to Menu C. Russia-Iran 1. Open for Business - Iran may soon be the first of several countries to join the nuclear club, with the help of Russian expertise They call it the �Berlin Wall.� It�s a plain, six-foot-high concrete barrier that bisects an unnamed village outside the Iranian city of Bushehr. On one side, about 1,500 Iranians live under Sharia�they lead quiet, spartan lives of work and prayer at the local mosque, with men and women strictly segregated. A few feet away on the other side of the wall, a rollicking population of 800 or so Russians and Ukrainians swill homemade moonshine and carouse late into the night. Yet every morning, the two sides�Iranians and Russians�meet on a vast construction site, where for the past seven years they�ve been building what may soon be Iran�s first nuclear power plant. �We�re at the top of our field,� says 44-year-old Andrei Malyshev, formerly deputy minister in Russia�s Ministry for Atomic Energy and now head of Russia�s nuclear inspectorate. �We have an excellent product and we�re proud of it.� To Russia, the Bushehr project is the symbol of its ambition as an exporter of nuclear technology. To Western intelligence officials and diplomats, it�s the beginning of a nightmare of proliferating nukes. Although Iran claims it�s only building an innocent electrical-power plant, Western officials worry that Russia�s nuclear know-how and materials could easily be diverted to weapons. Last week the United Nations� International Atomic Energy Agency gave them more cause for worry. Inspectors examining equipment at a nearby nuclear facility discovered traces of highly enriched uranium�the stuff of bombs. The evidence, though circumstantial, raises the possibility that Iran may already be well on its way toward joining the nuclear club. Russia is adamant in its refusal to pull out of Bushehr. Just last week U.S. State Department officials left Moscow after failing to persuade the Russians to abandon the project. They were disappointed, but not surprised; Russia has resisted similar entreaties for years. The Atomic Energy ministry, known as Minatom, is in fact hoping that Bushehr will serve as a harbinger of business to come. Out of the crumbling Russian nuclear industry, Minatom is engaged in an aggressive campaign to market Russian nuclear know-how to developing countries�several of which may be eager to acquire dual-use technology to secretly build nuclear weapons on the cheap. Russian atomic scientists are already helping China and India build nuclear plants. They�re bidding on a reactor in Finland. They�re considering building a research reactor in Burma and have already trained 300 Burmese scientists. They�re also in talks with Bulgaria, Cuba, Indonesia, Egypt and Syria. Several African countries are interested in a controversial new technology for nuclear plants that float in the ocean�a prospect that keeps proliferation experts awake at night. �Minatom does not seem to worry much about the possibility that someone might break into these reactors and take the fuel,� says Cristina Chuen, a researcher at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California. Russia�s nuclear ambitions grew out of the collapse of the Soviet economy. Even though Minatom retained responsibility for a large and deteriorating network of nuclear power plants in the early 1990s, its budget shrank to a fraction of its Soviet-era peak. To obtain much-needed currency, the ministry, which employs tens of thousands of nuclear scientists, started exporting nuclear technology to former Soviet satellite nations. At first, the United States seemed to be making headway in limiting the spread of Russia�s nuclear know-how. The Kremlin put a stop to all Russian nuclear cooperation with North Korea partly to assuage U.S. concerns over Kim Jong Il�s rising nuclear ambitions. A year later the United States undid that diplomacy when it struck a deal of its own with Pyongyang to build a light-water reactor, in return for a promise to halt its homegrown nuclear program. �Minatom went clean and then the U.S. turns around and delivers a light-water reactor to a country with a dubious stature,� says Aleksandr Pikayev of the Carnegie Center in Moscow. That, he says, goes a long way toward explaining Minatom�s current �hardened attitude.� The Russian government also has a lot riding on Minatom�s success. Russia�s burgeoning nuclear industry is one of the economy�s few bright spots. Last year Minatom took in $2.6 billion in nuclear export revenues and expects $3 billion this year. Bushehr alone will account for $800 million and about 20,000 Russian jobs. Last year Minatom deputy Bulat Nigmatulin told reporters that Russia may build 10 nuclear reactors in foreign countries over the next 10 years. In addition to five reactors already under construction in China, Iran and India, the other five could be finished by 2010 at $800 million to $900 million apiece. Says Malyshev: �It�s absolutely normal when a country creates a high-class product to sell it to other countries.� But what if that product can be used for nefarious purposes? CIA analysts in a January report put Russia at the top of the list of suppliers of the technology of weapons of mass destruction and advanced conventional munitions, followed by North Korea, China and, to a limited degree, some suppliers in Western countries. Last week�s revelation in Iran is sure to turn up the heat The U.N. team found the traces of highly enriched, bomb-grade uranium at a remote installation outside Deh-Zire, a village near Natanz, where the Iranian government has launched a uranium-enrichment program of its own. (It claims the fuel is for the Bushehr plant.) Iranian officials argue that traces of highly enriched uranium had been deposited on the equipment when it was imported. But Western experts aren�t buying it. A Tehran-based Western diplomat told NEWSWEEK that the enrichment site has underground facilities that could house tens of thousands of centrifuges�enough to make fuel for the eight reactors Iran says it wants to build, or a whole lot of bombs. And much of them are hardened against bombing strikes, which �obviously gives us cause for concern,� says the diplomat. Russian experts insist that Bushehr�s light-water reactor would be useless for producing weapons-grade material. But U.S. officials and scientists at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory disagree. Over several years, they insist, Bushehr could produce �80 to 100 plutonium-based nuclear weapons.� Will Israel or the United States take out the plant with a pre-emptive air or missile strike�just as Israeli bombers leveled Iraq�s Osirak reactor in 1981? Such a move would have to come before the plant goes online in early 2004 to avoid turning the region into a radioactive mess. If Russia doesn�t curb its nuclear ambitions, a confrontation in Iran could be the first of many. Return to Menu 2. Russia Not Budging on Iranian Nuclear Cooperation Russian officials are defending their country's nuclear collaboration with Iran, but their statements suggest the Kremlin has become sensitive to Western concerns about the issue. Moscow has made no commitment to halt what it calls its "peaceful nuclear cooperation" with Iran. The Atomic Energy Ministry said late last week it would not stop the construction of a 1,000 megawatt light-water nuclear reactor at Bushehr on Iran's Gulf coast unless the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) finds solid evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. At the same time Viktor Kozlov, CEO of Atomstroiexport, the Russian firm building Bushehr, told journalists in Moscow that Iran "will not be able to develop nuclear weapons." The statements followed an IAEA report stating that particles of weapons-grade uranium had been found at another Iranian nuclear facility, at Natanz. Russian deliveries of uranium to Bushehr could begin by next year. Tehran is expected, by next September, to sign an agreement formally undertaking to return all spent nuclear fuel to Russia for reprocessing and storage. The plant is due to open in 2005, rather than in 2004 as earlier planned. Some 100 Iranians are reportedly undergoing training at a nuclear facility in Central Russia, in preparation for their work at Bushehr. By the time the plant opens, more than 700 Iranians will have received the training. When Moscow last year released its plans for future economic relations with Iran, the Atomic Energy Ministry tentatively offered to help Tehran build five more nuclear power plants. Russia's involvement in Iran has long drawn criticism, with the U.S. arguing that Russian technology could be used to develop nuclear weapons. Russia has brushed off repeated U.S. demands that it cancel the project, saying it abides by international agreements banning the proliferation of nuclear technologies. Both Moscow and Tehran also argue that the plant can be used only for civilian purposes and will remain under international control. President Vladimir Putin has suggested that business considerations were behind the criticism. "We are against the pretext of using the [Iranian] nuclear program as a lever in unfair business competition against us," he said recently. Iran is a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but is only obliged to admit IAEA inspectors to nuclear sites it has declared to the U.N. agency. Moscow is urging Tehran to sign an additional protocol under the Non-Proliferation Treaty that would open the door to tougher inspections of its nuclear program by the IAEA. But Tehran has reportedly stated that it would only sign the additional document if sanctions against Iran were lifted. Bushehr is understood to be worth nearly $1 billion to the Russian nuclear power industry. Analysts say that commercial reality, along with Moscow's lucrative arms trade with Iran, hold more attraction to the government than either the possible threat of nuclear proliferation or diplomatic difficulties with Washington. The Kremlin secured a number of deals when President Mohammad Khatami visited Russia in March 2001. The two leaders signed a cooperation treaty, the first major accord between the two countries since the 1979 Islamic revolution. In October 2001, Moscow and Tehran signed framework agreements for supplies of Russian military equipment to Iran, worth $300-400 million annually, and including spare parts for Russian-made weapons, new fighter jets and possibly air defense, ground-to-ground and anti-ship systems. Neither agreement made Russia and Iran strategic partners, but they were aimed at strengthening what was officially described as "partner-like, neighborly relations." Return to Menu 3. Flawed Approaches on Iran Even during the depths of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union often worked together to halt the spread of nuclear weapons to new countries. Now, both countries are dealing with the realization that Iran's nuclear program is more advanced than previously thought and may be aimed directly at acquiring nuclear weapons in the next few years. Unfortunately, the approaches being pursued by both countries will do nothing to slow Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons, and a new approach and better coordination is desperately needed before it is too late. For the better part of a decade, U.S. officials pressured Russia to stop its support for the Bushehr nuclear reactor project in Iran. The United States argued that the power plant was a front for Iran to acquire weapons-related technology, a charge that Russian rejected. It now appears that both sides may have been wrong. Counter to U.S. projections, Iran appears to have used Pakistan and other third parties to develop a uranium enrichment technology based on centrifuges, instead of relying on covert acquisitions of Russian technology. This does not mean, however, that Russian experts or companies have not been involved in this program without the Kremlin's knowledge or permission -- only that Russia appears not to be the primary source of Iran's newfound capabilities. Yet Russia also ignored clear signs that Iran was interested in much more than a peaceful nuclear power program. Its willingness to engage in nuclear commerce with Iran, while financially beneficial, is now coming back to negatively effect Russia's security. To remedy the situation, the two countries have adopted similarly flawed approaches. Russian officials are working with Iran to ensure that any fuel used in the reactor at Bushehr -- fuel that when reprocessed could produce hundreds of nuclear weapons worth of plutonium -- is returned to Russia. For its part, with Russian support, the United States is pushing Iran to join the IAEA's enhanced inspection agreement, which will give the agency broader inspection and monitoring rights in Iran. While both of these initiatives are helpful, they will do absolutely nothing to head off the main challenge posed by Iran's growing nuclear program -- Tehran's construction of advanced centrifuge enrichment facilities that could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for 20 weapons per year by the end of the decade. Iran has stated that it is developing the means to produce its own enriched uranium fuel for the Bushehr reactors out of concern that the United States will convince Russia to cut off its fuel supply. Under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a party, states are entitled to engage in all manner of peaceful nuclear development as long as they accept international inspections. This provision, however, allows states to use the cover of the treaty to acquire the very means to produce a formidable nuclear arsenal, and then later withdraw from the pact and use the material for nuclear weapons. At the heart of international concerns is the risk that Iran will follow just this scenario to the detriment of regional and even global security. To head off this eventuality, the United States and Russia should reach quick agreement on a new strategy that would not only head off Iran's nuclear weapons potential, but address the underlying flaw in the NPT system. At a minimum, Russia should offer to guarantee -- with explicit U.S. endorsement -- Iran's supply of fuel for the Bushehr reactor as long as Iran abandons its indigenous uranium enrichment and plutonium production programs. This offer would give Iran a clear choice -- a reliable foreign source of nuclear energy or an internal nuclear program with weapons potential. The choice that Iran makes would help show the international community Iran's true intentions. To many, it is already clear that at a minimum, Iran is seeking the option of producing nuclear weapons through its own independent nuclear program. Given its history of conflict with Iraq -- a state by no means guaranteed of a peaceful and stable future -- as well as the perceived threats from Israel's and America's nuclear arsenals, Iran's position is understandable in some circles. But this nuclear option would only serve to increase the desire of other countries, including Saudi Arabia, Syria and even a future independent Iraq, to acquire their own nuclear options, to say nothing of the steps Israel might take before Iran's became a reality. Thus, in addition to the offer to guarantee Iran's supply of low enriched uranium fuel for its nuclear reactor, the United States and Russia should revisit the idea of establishing a clear policy that nuclear weapons will not be used to threaten states that do not have nuclear weapons or an active nuclear program. Amazingly, since the end of the Cold War, both the United States and Russia have increased the circumstances under which they would be willing to use or threaten use of nuclear weapons. It is time the two countries recognize that such a policy has negative implications that could drive states to acquire nuclear weapons. Russia and America have an important legacy of preventing proliferation of which they should be proud. It is a legacy that should be revived and focused on the core proliferation threats in Iran and elsewhere before the nuclear confrontation of the Cold War is replaced by a broader nuclear competition the two states will not find as easy to control. Return to Menu 4. Ministry: No Reason Yet to Stop Bushehr Russia will not suspend construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran unless the UN International Atomic Energy Agency finds solid evidence that Iran is secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program, the Nuclear Power Ministry said Thursday. "There have to be solid reasons presented before one suspends cooperation," a ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. IAEA has prepared a confidential report confirming that its inspectors had found particles of weapons-grade uranium at a nuclear facility at Natanz, the Western press reported earlier this week. Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi on Thursday confirmed that inspectors had found traces of enriched uranium in Natanz, Reuters reported. The leak of the report prompted Washington, which has accused Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons, to renew its call for Russia to suspend construction of the Bushehr plant. According to the Russian official, however, the recently found particles of highly enriched uranium do not qualify as a smoking gun, given the possibility and Iran's assurances that the substance was brought in on previously imported equipment. Thus, the official said, Russia does not expect IAEA at its Sept. 8 meeting to find Iran in noncompliance with the nonproliferation treaty, which would require the nuclear watchdog to submit the issue to the UN Security Council. He repeated the ministry's position that Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran is "transparent" and adheres to the nonproliferation treaty and other international nuclear safeguards. He said Russia will complete construction of the first reactor of the Bushehr plant in 2004 but may send the first batch of nuclear fuel to Iran this year. Representatives of the Nuclear Power Ministry and their Iranian counterparts will meet in September to sign an agreement that would require Iran to ship all spent nuclear fuel from Bushehr back to Russia. During the meeting, the Russian side will again call upon Iran to sign an additional protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that would enable the IAEA to conduct random inspections, the official said. However, the ministry-controlled contractors will complete Bushehr's first reactor, construction of which was started but then abandoned by Germany's Siemens, even if Iran refuses, the official said. Iran has agreed to sign the protocol, but the on condition that it is given broad access to peaceful nuclear technologies as stipulated in the treaty. While its contractors are busy completing the first reactor, the Nuclear Power Ministry advised Iran not to complete the second reactor. A feasibility study, which was conducted by the ministry earlier this year, shows that it would be more cost-efficient to build a new reactor from scratch, the official said. While the first reactor was 70 percent ready when abandoned by Siemens, the second one is only 40 percent ready, according to the study, which was commissioned by the Iranian side in December and delivered to Tehran in August. The United States realizes that Russia will not abandon construction of the first reactor, but still keeps up the pressure in an effort to prevent Moscow and Tehran from clinching further nuclear construction deals, according to Ivan Safranchuk, Moscow representative of the Washington-based Center for Defense Information. Return to Menu 5. Russia to delay signing key nuclear agreement with Iran Moscow announced Friday that it would delay until the end of the year signing a key agreement with Iran that would launch the Islamic state's first nuclear reactor. The unexpected statement from Russia's atomic energy ministry appeared to be a direct concession to frequently-expressed US and Israeli concerns that the project could help Iran develop a nuclear weapons program. Russia and Iran had planned to sign an agreement under which Moscow would provide fuel for the Bushehr nuclear power plant that it has been helping build in southern Iran. In return, Tehran was to agree to return all of the reactor's spent fuel to Russia for reprocessing, officials in Moscow had said. Western states, most notably the United States, fear that if Iran keeps the fuel it may later reprocess it to create low-grade nuclear weapons. The Unites States had pressed Russia not to sign the agreement until Iran allows open inspections by teams from the United Nations of its military installations. Russia's atomic energy spokesman Alexander Agapov told the Interfax news agency that the new protocol with Iran may not be signed for several more months. "Generally, all disputes will be resolved by the end of the year," Agapov was quoted as saying. He blamed the delay on the Iranians. "The delivery of fuel is constantly being delayed because Iran has no final document on a reaction to a possible emergency" during the transport of fuel, the Russian spokesman said. "We cannot carry (spent nuclear fuel into Russia) until we are convinced it will be transported safely to a temporary storage facility," he added. He added that a group of Russian experts would travel to Iran on September 21 to help resolve the problem. Russia's decision came before a key meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, which is due to discuss the Iranian question during September 8-11. Return to Menu D. Russia-North Korea 1. Koizumi, Putin favour nuclear free status on Korean peninsula (excerpted) Russian Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi favoured the nuclear free status on the Korean peninsula. During the 30-minute telephone conversation, Putin and Koizumi exchanged views on the results of the six-sided talks on North Korea's nuclear programme that were held in Beijing last week, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement transmitted to Itar-Tass on Monday. Putin pointed to the need to continue talks on this issue and revealed Russia's and Japan's positions on ensuring security in the region. He also lauded cooperation of Russian and Japanese representatives in Beijing. Koizumi commended the fact that the participants in the talks agreed to solve the North Korean problem by peaceful means. He urged Russia to continue cooperation in solving the problem regarding the fate of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korean special services in the 1970' s-1980's. Putin praised Japan's attitude towards this issue in Beijing. The Japanese prime minister expressed condolences on the death of crewmembers of the nuclear K-159 submarine that wrecked in the Barents Sea on Saturday. [�] The conversation focused on the development of Japanese-Russian relations and international issues. The Japanese prime minister gave a high assessment to the Russian Pacific fleet command post exercise conducted at the end of August. The Russian president noted the importance of Japan's participation in this exercise. Both Putin and Koizumi stressed the important Return to Menu 2. UN debates on North Korean issue premature It would be premature to transfer the North Korean issue to the UN Security Council, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov told Itar-Tass on Sunday. "The North Korean issue complicates the international situation, so the Security Council has the right to discuss it, and it is hard to object to that," Losyukov said. "On the other hand, it is somewhat premature to speak about the UN Security Council's debates on the North Korean issue as long as there is prospect to solve it between six parties." Losyukov, who had headed Russia's delegation to the Beijing negotiations on the North Korean issue, called for further discussions in the same format. "If the problem can be solved in a group of interested states, the involvement of a large number of participants in the discussion may complicate the settlement prospects," he remarked. Return to Menu 3. Korea did not Claim its Readiness for Nuclear Tests in Beijing Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov has denied the report that the North Korean representative at the six-party talks in Beijing made a declaration on North Korea's preparations for a nuclear test and its intention to become a nuclear power. "The North Korean spokesman has not made such declaration", said Losyukov in a conversation with Russian journalists on Friday. "We suppose that this declaration echoes with the earlier voiced North Korean position that, in case there is a threat to the DPRK security from the United States or elsewhere, own security should be worked for, including on the nuclear program. And then, the North Korean side would be able to come up with something", said the Russian chief delegate at the Beijing talks. In Alexander Losyukov's opinion, his is "a purely hypothetical supposition". "The North Korean representative at the six-party talks has not advanced any threat of this kind", emphasised the head of the Russian delegation. Return to Menu 4. Russia to Contribute to Korean Settlement Russia intends to play an active role in the Korean settlement. "The deepening of the crisis in that region is dangerous for us and does not meet our interests, therefore Russia will have an active stance being in contact with other countries," Alexander Losyukov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister heading the Russian delegation at the multilateral negotiations in Beijing said on Friday. According to him, in the course of the first round of the six-sided meeting on the nuclear problem of North Korea, the Russian delegation closely cooperated with representatives of China. This cooperation "rested on the similarity of our stances, on the full coincidence of the interests at this stage," said the high-ranking Russian diplomat. At the final session on Friday, the Russian delegation said that the parties had to do their best to develop negotiations on the North Korean nuclear issue. Moscow believes the talks have a good potential for removing mistrust, suspicion and mutual concerns." This would also contribute to the inter-Korean rapprochement process and, possibly, "to reunification of both parts of Korea in the future," the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said. Return to Menu E. Russian Nuclear Forces 1. Nuclear submarine test-fires ballistic missile A Russian nuclear submarine on Tuesday successfully test-fired a ballistic missile from beneath the waters off Russia's Pacific Coast, the military said. The missile, launched from the Sea of Okhotsk by the Pacific Fleet submarine Podolsk, hit the designated target at the navy's Chizha range on the Barents Sea coast in northern Russia some 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) away, the navy said in a statement carried by the Interfax-Military News Agency. The navy chief, Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, thanked the submarine's crew for the successful launch, the statement said. The Podolsk, a Delta III-class submarine, carries 16 R-29R missiles armed with multiple nuclear warheads, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Return to Menu F. Official Statements 1. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov Speaks to US Secretary of State Colin Powell by Telephone A telephone conversation took place on August 29 between Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Igor Ivanov and US Secretary of State Colin Powell. In the course of the conversation topical issues in bilateral relations were discussed in the context of the preparations for the upcoming visit this September of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to the United States. The Ministers also touched upon a number of international problems, devoting special attention to the contribution of the United Nations to all the aspects of Iraqi settlement, as well as to the outcome of the six-way talks on Korean problems held in Beijing, and stressing the mutual interest of Russia and the US in maintaining the denuclearized status of the Korean Peninsula, and their commitment to a further search of diplomatic ways to resolve the situation around the DPRK. Return to Menu 2. Speech by Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Igor Ivanov at MGIMO(U) on the Occasion of the Beginning of an Academic Year (excerpted) [�] It is perfectly clear that the upcoming political year promises to be a year rich in events and far from ordinary. The world community has a whole array of problems before it that demand an urgent and adequate solution. The chief of them is to determine a contemporary world pattern model for the coming years and decades which would meet the interests of all states and peoples - big and small - and would open prospects for broad cooperation in the interests of a stable and secure evolution of the situation in the world. Recent events, and primarily the Iraq crisis, have most acutely demonstrated that the current transitional stage of world development from the Cold War era to a new world order has become impermissibly protracted. As a result, the situation has developed that is characterized by permanent instability. It is hard to recall in contemporary history another period when so many unresolved regional problems would simultaneously exist in the world, really threatening international stability. And if we add to this such threats as terrorism, separatism and other forms of extremism, the danger of the spread of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery vehicles, drug trafficking and organized crime, then it becomes evident that the priority task of the international community is to create a new world order which would ensure stability and security on the global level, would help neutralize the present challenges and would not allow new ones to appear. In all these processes Russia will continue to play the most active, initiative-laden role. At the top of the list we, of course, put our national interests. It is fundamentally important for us to secure external conditions that would reliably guarantee security and prosperity for our citizens and would facilitate the economic and social development of our country. Simultaneously we are perfectly aware that to achieve this goal is only possible if Russia together with other states can work out the basic principles on which to build interstate relations at this stage. And here in the new and democratic Russia the international community has a reliable, predictable and responsible partner open for dialogue and the search of mutually acceptable solutions on the basis of the Charter of the United Nations and of the principles of international law. In our deep conviction, the international community is quite able to build a democratic world order under which each state would bear its share of responsibility for the future of mankind, and the world community, in its turn, would protect the foundations of international law and the lawful interests of each of its members. In other words: prosperity and security through international cooperation with the preservation of national distinctiveness - this is our principle. In this we see also the principal meaning of the concept of multipolarity in the era of globalization. For us, a multipolar world is the close cooperation of all the major world centers on the basis of equality, democracy and constructive partnership. The events of the last few years have borne out with particular clarity that when we - I mean the world community - are together, then we can cope with even the most complicated of tasks. But when we are disunited, then it becomes for us considerably more difficult to fight the present-day threats and challenges as well. All this dictates the need to further strengthen the multilateral institutions and, primarily, the central and coordinating role of the United Nations and of its Security Council. It is the United Nations that can act as the pivotal structure of contemporary international life and a guarantor for the immutability of the fundamental principles of international law. It is the United Nations that can become the main center for developing a world development strategy. Of course, this requires the combined will of the member states of this world organization. As to Russia, we have that will. The upcoming participation of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in the opening session of the UN General Assembly is a striking testimony to this. In this connection I would like to especially stress that in our position in favor of the idea of multipolarity and multilateral diplomacy - and, by the way, this position is shared by the overwhelming majority of states of the world - there are no elements of confrontationism or rivalry at all; on the contrary, we are sincerely interested in close collaboration with all our partners and, moreover, without such broad-based cooperation we did not even think of the construction of the world order towards which we are striving. This fully applies to our relationship with the United States. Active preparation is now under way for the next Russian-American summit meeting in Washington, before which only a few days remain. We firmly expect the upcoming talks of the Presidents of Russia and the US to become a new landmark in the constructive partnership between our countries. Stability and predictability in the world to this day largely depend on the degree of collaboration between Russia and the United States on the world scene. We, for our part, are ready for such cooperation and have proved this in practice, be it in the elaboration of the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty or within the international antiterrorist coalition, including in Afghanistan, although a great deal, of course, has still to be jointly done and, above all, this applies to the area of security. But neither should we forget about the other fields of cooperation, in particular, about the need to strengthen trade and economic ties between our countries, and to remove the obstacles for the development of people-to-people contacts. [�] Return to Menu 3. Transcript of the Interview Granted by Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Igor Ivanov to Russian and Foreign Media After His Speech at MGIMO(U), September 1, 2003 (excerpted) Question: How do you assess the outcome of the talks on North Korean problems, and is there a chance that there will be the next round? Answer: We feel that the very holding of the talks on Korean problems in a six-nation format is an important element in the efforts of the international community, which are directed to the creation of a stable situation on the Korean Peninsula. Actually we hadn't expected any breakthrough at these talks, as this was but the first round. But it's important that the dialogue is going on and it's important that this dialogue should continue. We therefore expect that the participants of the six-way format will soon be able to agree on the date for continuing these talks. Russia favors continuation of the talks, and the search for mutually acceptable solutions which would help create a stable situation on the Korean Peninsula. I think that the other participants of these talks also generally share this approach. [�] Return to Menu 4. Talk with the personnel of the �Moscow� cruiser Good evening, comrades. I am happy to welcome you all. This is my first meeting with the personnel of the �Moscow� cruiser. In 20 years of service, your ship has done a great deal of useful things for the Russian Naval Fleet, for the Russian Armed Forces. It has taken part in difficult campaigns, tried out the newest types of equipment, and even taken part in diplomatic activity. International meetings of the highest level have been held on board. I would like to thank both you and the previous generation of soldiers who served here. This is the first visit in recent Russian history of Russian military ships to Sardinia. Although generations of Russian sailors probably know and remember that in their time, Russian sailors took an active role in saving Italian citizens during an earthquake in 1909. But today we must not talk about what happened a long time ago, but also about what is happening today. Today, unfortunately, a tragedy has taken place in the Barents Sea. A submarine from the Northern Fleet sank which has being taken to be scrapped. It is already clear that there are fatalities among the sailors. This shows once more that the sea requires discipline in the strictest sense of the word. The sea never forgives any negligence, and certainly not mistakes. Of course, it still remains to ascertain the reasons for this tragedy, but what I just said is an old truth � the sea never forgives mistakes. This always has to be paid for dearly. There will be a thorough investigation in connection with this. The commander-in-chief of the Naval Fleet is already there. I think that the Defence Minister will go there this evening as well. And sad as this may be, you have your own service, and it is no less responsible or dangerous. I greatly hope that you and your commanders will perform your duty and represent the Russian naval fleet with dignity, in both Italy, and, as the commander told me, in Greece, and then at the base in Sevastopol, where you will have a complex training programme. I wish you success. Question: Will Russia have the opportunity in future to have military boats permanently at sea? Vladimir Putin: Of course it will. If you had noticed, the fleet has become much more active that it was in previous years. Training has just finished in the Far East, and quite recently training was held in the Indian Ocean, and we are planning training here with our Italian partners, in the Mediterranean, with the participation of submarine and surface vessels. One of the main training sessions will be developing sea rescue procedures. Work will be done with the surface and submarine vessels of Italy and Russia. You have already arranged similar training with the French naval fleet. We will definitely plan and carry out this training. I agree with you absolutely that a boat that stays in port loses it military readiness. Specialists do not gain any skills, they even lose them, and this situation is unacceptable, of course. The fleet will perform the tasks the Defence Ministry gives to it, and the leadership of the country. For any state, especially for a naval state, the significance of the fleet is very great. It is not just a sign of active foreign policies, in modern conditions it is a significant part of the state�s security. We will definitely work in this direction in future. We will also continue to work on a programme to revive the Russian fleet. There is an according programme which includes construction of surface and submarine vessels. In 2004, the funds planned for these goals in the country�s budget will be allocated. Thank you for your attention. Return to Menu G. Links of Interest 1. Atomflot Deputy Director Arrested on Charges of Nuclear Materials Smuggling Return to Menu 2. K-159 Resources Return to Menu 3. Nuclear Pollution in the Barents and Kara Seas Return to Menu 4. Debating Iran�s Nuclear Aspirations Return to Menu 5. Putting WMD Terrorism into Perspective Return to Menu 6. Cooperative Verified Dismantlement of Nuclear Programs: An Eye Toward North Korea Return to Menu DISCLAIMER: Nuclear News is presented for informational purposes only. Views presented in any given article are those of the individual author or source and not of RANSAC. RANSAC takes no responsibility for the technical accuracy of information contained in any article presented in Nuclear News. RANSAC's Nuclear News is compiled two to three times weekly. 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