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Bush Targets Russia Nuclear Programs for Cuts
US programs that pay to help Russia reduce and safeguard its nuclear weapons and materials have been targeted by the Bush administration for cuts of 12 percent below this year's level and 30 percent below the figures proposed in the Clinton administration's fiscal 2002 budget, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
Rose E. Gottemoeller, former director of nonproliferation and national security at the Energy Department, said she has been told that the 1.2 billion dollars proposed by the previous administration for Russian programs had been reduced by President Bush's Office of Management and Budget to 800 million dollars, which is 73 million below the current year's figure.
Gottemoeller said the "Nuclear Cites" program, which this year provided 30 million dollars to help former nuclear scientists get non-military work, would be cut to 6 million dollars.
The nuclear materials protection and security program, which helps pay for improved security over Russia's stockpiles of plutonium and enriched uranium, received 154 million dollars this year. Under Clinton Budget, it would have risen to 217 million dollars. Under Bush, it is set to drop to 139 million dollars.
Energy Department's plutonium disposal program, in which the United States and Russia change weapons-grade material so it cannot be used for bombs, is set to rise from 200 million dollars this year to 217 million dollars under Bush.
That is well below the 400 million dollars proposed by the Clinton administration to enable construction of a facility to begin processing the nuclear materials.
Sentiment appears to be growing in Congress to cut aid to Russia in response to Russian sales of weaponry and nuclear power plants to Iran, the report said.
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