U.S. Officials Claim Russia Preparing for Nuclear Test
In late April and early May, U.S. officials briefed select members
of Congress on new intelligence that they believe indicates that
Russia is preparing to conduct nuclear tests at its Novaya Zemlya
test site, according to congressional sources.
Asked about the U.S. allegations at a May 13 briefing, a senior
U.S. official said, “We expect the Russian government to carry
out its pledge to refrain from nuclear testing.” The official
said the situation illustrated why the administration feels the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is unverifiable, arguing that
if a country seeks “to test in a deceptive manner…we might
not be able to pick that up.” Ratified by Russia and signed
by the United States, the treaty bans all nuclear weapons test explosions.
Questioned about the charges during a May 12 interview with Russia’s
ORT television, Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov said he
was surprised by the allegations, which he termed “ungrounded
statements.” “There are still people in the United States
who think in the categories of the Cold War,” Ivanov said.
A Foreign Ministry statement issued five days later said that Russia
is “maintaining the readiness” of its test site but that
reports claiming it is preparing to conduct tests are “totally
at odds with reality.” The statement impugned U.S. motives,
saying that the allegations were circulated “to divert the
attention of the international community from the U.S. refusal to
ratify the CTBT and the actual plans of the Pentagon to create a
new generation of nuclear weapons that may require nuclear tests.”
In 1997, U.S. intelligence officials alleged that seismic and other
data indicated that Russia had conducted a clandestine nuclear test
in August of that year, leading the White House to issue a formal
diplomatic protest to Moscow. The allegation was subsequently retracted
when more careful analysis showed that the data was pointing to
a seismic event, which was almost certainly a small earthquake,
that had occurred beneath the sea floor some distance from Russia’s
island test site. (See
ACT, October 1997.)
Representative Curt Weldon (R-PA), who attended one of the highly
classified congressional briefings, has successfully championed
an amendment to the House version of the fiscal year 2003 defense
authorization bill that calls for “joint visits by nuclear
weapons scientists and experts” to U.S. and Russian nuclear
test sites. The Senate version of the bill, which has not yet been
finalized, does not contain a similar provision, and prospects for
passage of Weldon’s amendment remain unclear.
At a November 2001 international conference on the CTBT, Russia
proposed bilateral measures beyond those contained in the treaty
to make test-site activity more transparent but indicated that Washington
and Moscow should pursue such measures after the treaty has entered
into force. (See
ACT, December 2001.)
|
