Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire: Pentagon Eyes Smaller Role in Russian WMD Disposal

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Pentagon Eyes Smaller Role in Russian WMD Disposal

A Soviet Tu-160 strategic bomber is dismantled in 2001 in Ukraine under the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction program. The United States could assume a less prominent role in eliminating Cold War-era weapons of mass destruction in Russia as disposal efforts near completion, a senior Defense Department official suggested on Tuesday (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky).

By Diane Barnes
Global Security Newswire
WASHINGTON -- The United States' work to destroy Soviet-era unconventional arms in Russia could be getting "less important" now that many projects have been completed, a senior Defense Department official said on Tuesday.
An agreement set to lapse in June has enabled Russia to participate in the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction initiative, which for more than 20 years has provided U.S. financial and technical backing for WMD destruction in former Soviet states and beyond. Moscow has said it would not extend the deal in its current form, but the sides have been in negotiations to prepare a follow-on arrangement.http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/russian-wmd-destruction-could-be-getting-less-important-us/