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Pentagon Seeks to Cut Cooperative Threat Reduction Programs
The U.S. Defense Department’s fiscal 2005 budget request for its Cooperative Threat Reduction programs adds funding for an effort to interdict WMD smuggling in non-Russian former Soviet republics, but cuts support for efforts to eliminate Russian chemical weapons, according to a Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council analysis released yesterday (see related GSN story, today). The Pentagon has proposed spending $409.2 million for threat reduction programs in fiscal 2005, $41.6 million less than current funding levels. The Pentagon’s CTR request includes: * $158.4 million to aid Russian chemical weapons disposal efforts, a $42 million decrease from fiscal 2004 funding approved by Congress; * $58.5 million for efforts to eliminate Russian strategic delivery vehicles, an $8.1 million decrease from fiscal 2004 funding approved by Congress; and * $40 million for the WMD Proliferation Prevention Initiative, a $10.6 million increase from approved fiscal 2004 funding. Three other CTR efforts — two programs to help improve the secure storage and transportation of Russian nuclear weapons and a program to help aid Russian biological weapons disposal efforts — experienced relatively little change in funding levels between the Pentagon’s fiscal 2005 request and current funding (Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council release, Feb. 10).
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