News
Publish date: April 17, 1998
Written by: Igor Kudrik
News
Gennadiy Seleznev, speaker of the Russian State Duma, told Interfax the uncertainty over the new Russian Prime Minister and government would not affect the scheduled debate of the START-2 treaty ratification. This issue is to be considered by the State Duma before June.
In the beginning of April, Igor Sergeev, Russia’s defence minister, met with Duma members in an attempt to gain support for the treaty. Sergeev told news agencies after the meeting that "from the military point of view the ratification is urgently necessary". Sergeev added "The treaty is beneficial for Russia."
On the other hand, according to an opinion published in the Russian Segodnya newspaper, Russia would not be able to cope with the task of dismantling the weaponry stocks covered by START-2, if the Duma ratifies the agreement. According to the newspaper, Russia can hardly keep up with current nuclear weaponry reduction schedules, while START-2 assumes doubling of the work to be done.
The U.S. foots the bill for half of Russia’s nuclear disarmament. The budgets allocated from the Russian side are squeezed to a minimum.
Following Kazakhstan’s country-wide vote in favor of building a nuclear power plant earlier this month, Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom has begun a courtship of officialdom in Astana, the country’s capital, in apparent hopes of landing a contract to construct it.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
Kazakhstan voted in a referendum last weekend on whether to build its first nuclear power plant, and an exit poll showed voters backed the idea promoted by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's cabinet in an effort to phase out coal plants.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.