Russia no longer wants the US nuclear security alliance. Until the talks were finalized the US helped Russia protect their stockpiles of weapon-grade uranium and plutonium…. Since Russia’s inability to cooperate in the Ukraine crisis, the EU and the US have hit the country with strong economic sanctions. The US had helped fund Russia’s nuclear surveillance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GxQ4829g7oA
18 loose nukes – In this Wednesday, Dec. 24, 1997 file photo, soldiers prepare to destroy a ballistic SS-19 missile in the yard of the largest former Soviet military rocket base in Vakulenchuk, Ukraine, 220 kilometers (137 miles) west of Kiev. The U.S. helped Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations secure former Soviet nuclear weapons and dismantle some of them under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program initiated by Sens. Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar. (Associated Press)
AP/File
The United States helped Russia secure and dismantle nuclear weapons in the Cooperative Threat Reduction programs.
By Bryan BenderGlobe Staff January 19, 2015
WASHINGTON — The private diplomatic meetings took place over two days in mid-December in a hotel overlooking Moscow’s Red Square.
But unlike in previous such gatherings, the sense of camaraderie, even brotherhood, was overshadowed by an uncomfortable chill, according to participants.
In the previously undisclosed discussions, the Russians informed the Americans that they were refusing any more US help protecting their largest stockpiles of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium from being stolen or sold on the black market. The declaration effectively ended one of the most successful areas of cooperation between the former Cold War adversaries.
“I think it greatly increases the risk of catastrophic terrorism,” said Sam Nunn, the former Democratic senator from Georgia and an architect of the “cooperative threat reduction” programs of the 1990s.
Official word came in a terse, three-page agreement signed on Dec. 16. A copy was obtained by the Globe, and a description of the Moscow meeting was provided by three people who attended the session or were briefed on it. They declined to be identified for security reasons.
Russia’s change of heart was not unexpected.
