Moscow, 30 January: Chechen terrorists have not given up trying to get hold of a nuclear warhead from the arsenals of the Russian armed forces, Col-Gen Igor Volynkin, head of the 12th Main Directorate of the Russian Defence Ministry, told journalists at a reception for a US Department of Defence delegation at training centre No 84 of the Russian Defence Ministry, located
in Sergiyev Posad, Moscow Region.
According to the general, "operational reports indicate that Chechen terrorists intend to get hold of an important military facility or a nuclear
warhead in order to threaten not just our country but the whole world".
According to the head of the US delegation, chief of the Directorate of Nuclear Facilities Safety at the US Defence Department (?Thomas Koenig), "Russian experience in organizing the protection of nuclear facilities has proved very useful". "We realize full well that with the possible start of a
military operation against Iraq the risk of nuclear terrorism in USA will increase," he noted. "That is why we are now stepping up security measures at our facilities," Koenig told journalists.
A special training base was operating at Russian Defence Ministry's training
centre No 84 for nuclear safety specialists between February 1998 and November 2000 as part of the implementation of a Russian-US programme for joint threat reduction, with the support of the Gore-Chernomyrdin commission
and US senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar. In the past three years, 3,000 devices for ensuring security of nuclear weapons were tested there, including Russian, US, Israeli, French and Italian ones. In terms of efficiency, repairability and other indicators, 70 per cent of Russian devices were deemed most reliable. In November 2002, in the course of Russia-US talks in Sergiyev Posad, an agreement was reached on US help in personnel training for guarding 68 atomic weapons-related facilities in Russia.