RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 16, Part I, 24 January 2001

MOSCOW PLANS RESPONSE IF U.S. WITHDRAWS FROM ABM LIMITS...Defense Minister Igor Sergeev said in an interview published in the 23 January "Parlamentskaya gazeta" that there is no basis to American arguments in favor of scrapping the ABM Treaty, but that if Washington leaves the treaty, Russia will respond. Meanwhile, Major General Vladimir Dvorkin, the director of the Defense Ministry's Fourth Research Institute which deals with nuclear weapons planning, said in an interview published in "Izvestiya" on 22 January that an American withdrawal from the ABM Treaty might force Russia to "build up its strategic Missile Forces" and to "abolish numerous restrictions" on some of its high-tech weapons. Such asymmetric measures," he said, "are what Russia in its current position can afford." PG

...BUT HOPES FOR U.S.-RUSSIA NUCLEAR COOPERATION. Meanwhile, Unity faction leader Boris Gryzlov told ITAR-TASS on 23 January that he believes Washington is prepared to consider the creation of a collective ABM system. And a spokesman for the atomic power ministry said that it hopes for an extension of an agreement allowing Russia to export low-enriched uranium to the United States, the Russian news agency said.
PG

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 5, No. 16, Part I, 24 January 2001