Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=02/16/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=RUSSIA / MISSILES (L)

NUMBER=2-272665

BYLINE=LARRY JAMES

DATELINE=MOSCOW

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Russia has test-fired both land and sea based intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Larry James reports from Moscow on the tests, which were carried out today/Friday in the midst of a disagreement between the United States and Russia over each other's defense policies.

TEXT: Two missiles were test fired, one from a land-based silo in northwestern Russia and the other from a nuclear-powered submarine in the Barents sea. Both were aimed at targets in the remote Kamchatka peninsula on Russia's Pacific coast.

A spokesman for Russia's Strategic Missile Forces said a Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile was successfully launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome as part of a training exercise. The Topol missile is planned to serve as the basis for Russia's long-range missile program. Most of the other missiles in their arsenal are considered either out-dated and unreliable or are targeted for elimination under the START Two arms reduction treaty.

///OPT/// A statement from the Russian navy said their test launch, carried out by a submarine of the Northern Fleet while it was on station in the Barents sea, demonstrated the reliability and effectiveness of their program. ///END OPT///

The tests come just a day after Russia responded angrily to an American claim that Moscow is actively supporting countries such as North Korea and Iran by exporting missile technology to them. Senior military officials here were indignant in their response that they are doing no such thing. They countered that the charge, leveled by U-S Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, was only an American public relations move aimed at promoting the defensive missile program that Washington wants to deploy and which Russia objects to.

On Wednesday, Secretary Rumsfeld charged that Moscow was responsible for helping such countries as Iran, North Korea and India with technology that threatens the United States, Western Europe and countries in the Middle East. He said that it makes no sense for Russia to be exporting missile technology while at the same time opposing U-S plans for the missile shield. His remarks were some of the bluntest criticisms yet of Russian policy by the new Bush administration.

Russia opposes the U-S missile plan saying it violates the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, which is considered the foundation of nuclear non-proliferation. (Signed)

NEB/LDJ/GE/PLM