Russia Notes Terrorists’ Nuclear Ambitions

A Russian official said yesterday that Russia has intelligence indicating that terrorists have been attempting to acquire nuclear weapons, the Russia and CIS Military Newswire reported (see GSN, Sept. 27).

“We know for sure, with evidence and facts in hand, about this steady interest and a goal pursued by terrorists to obtain what is called nuclear weapons and nuclear components in any form,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Safonov said at a conference in Moscow on preventing acts of nuclear and radiological terrorism.

Safonov urged nations to take action to prevent facilitators of Islamic terror operating in technology and information sectors from acquiring weapons of mass destruction, adding that more could be done to prevent nuclear terrorism than other terrorist attacks.

“Measures against nuclear terrorism are very closely related to the problem of nonproliferation of nuclear materials now,” he said.

One Russian lawmaker called for a national body dedicated to safeguarding against nuclear terrorism.  Anatoly Kulikov argued that responsibility for preventing nuclear terrorism is currently spread across dozens of Russian agencies, committees and ministries.

Kulikov expressed concern that many different agencies transport Russian nuclear materials around the country thousands of times each year, complicating efforts to secure the materials (Russia and CIS Military Newswire, Sept. 27).

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