Feb 20 2005 4:47PM Moscow rally calls to prevent US control over Russian nuclear facilities MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) - Several hundred Orthodox Christians rallied in the center of Moscow on Sunday in support of Russia's nuclear sovereignty.
Several associations of Orthodox Christians and Cossacks organized the action following media reports that at the summit in Bratislava on February 24 Russia and the United States will sign a treaty under which international control is going to be established over Russian nuclear forces.
An Interfax correspondent reported from the scene that the key theme of the action was "No to US control over the Russian nuclear arsenal!"
The protesters voiced fears that in Bratislava President George W. Bush would come up with the proposal of establishing international control over Russian strategic nuclear facilities and in this context urged the Russian leadership not to make any concessions. "Russia's nuclear sovereignty is not a subject for bargaining," Vladimir Osipov, leader of the Christian Revival Union, said.
Speakers also insisted that the Russian leadership make it clear to President Bush that US interference in the internal affairs of former Soviet republics is impermissible. "We are witnessing a direct intervention of the United States in the historical territory of [Ancient] Rus. The orange revolution in Ukraine is a striking example of such intervention," Osipov said.
On February 11 the Russian Foreign Ministry denied media reports that there were any plans of signing a treaty with the United States on international control over of Russian nuclear forces.
"The speculations about any pending treaty implying among other things international control over Russian nuclear facilities are absolutely groundless," a ministry release said. "Russia and the United States have not been working and cannot be working on anything of the kind," it said.
"This does no mean that there is no dialogue or interaction between Russia and the United States in the sphere of nuclear security. They exist and develop," the release said.
The release said that the press reports that the subject was discussed during the visit of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov to Washington "are true because the subject of the nonproliferation of nuclear and any other weapons of mass destruction is constantly in the focal point of our discussion, including those conducted along the lines of defense ministries."
The release quotes Ivanov saying that "resistance to such a real threat as the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is one of the least conflict-ridden, clear and evident directions of Russian-American cooperation, here we have no differences."
"We want to stress that Russia and the United States have many coinciding objectives in the sphere of preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction throughout the planet, including the prevention of its spread to terrorists. We expect the dialogue to continue in the future," the ministry release said. [RU EUROPE ASIA EEU EMRG POL US DIP] ml
===== Nu, zayats, pogodi!
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail