Russia and weapons of mass destruction

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Russia possesses one of the largest stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in the world.^{[dubious – discuss]} The country declared an arsenal of 28,000 tons of chemical weapons in 2008^[1]. According to the Nuclear Notebook Russia had 5,200 nuclear weapons deployed in early 2008.^[2][3][4] Other sources, such as Alexander Khramchikhin, an analyst at the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, say that Russia has 3,100 nuclear warheads, while the U.S. has 5,700.^[5] According to a report published by the U.S State Department in April, 2009, Russia has 3,909 nuclear warheads, while the US has 5,576 warheads.^[6] The Soviet Union ratified the Geneva Protocol on January 22, 1975 with reservations. The reservations were later dropped on January 18, 2001.

Contents 1 Nuclear weapons 1.1 Nuclear arsenal of Russia 1.2 Doctrine of limited nuclear war 1.3 Nuclear proliferation 2 Biological weapons 3 Chemical weapons 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Nuclear weapons

[edit] Nuclear arsenal of Russia

Russia was estimated to have around 6,681 active strategic nuclear warheads in its arsenal.^[7] Russia also has a large but unknown number of tactical nuclear weapons [1]. Strategic nuclear forces of Russia include:^[7]

1. Land based Strategic Rocket Forces: 489 missiles carrying up to 1,788 warheads; they employ immobile (silos), like SS-18 Satan, and mobile delivery systems, like SS-27 Topol M.
2. Sea based Strategic Fleet: 12 submarines carrying up to 609 warheads; they employ delivery systems like SS-N-30 Bulava.
3. Strategic Aviation: 258 bombers(36 Tu-160,64 Tu-95,and 158 Tu-22m) carrying up to 924 cruise missiles.

Russia
First nuclear weapon test	August 29, 1949
First fusion weapon test	November 22, 1955
Largest yield test	50 Mt (October 30, 1961)
Peak stockpile	41,000 warheads (1991)
Current stockpile	5,200 total (2008 est.)[8] Less than 2,300 according to another source.[9]
Maximum missile range	Intercontinental
NPT signatory	Yes (1968, one of five recognized powers)

[edit] Doctrine of limited nuclear war

According to a Russian military doctrine stated in 2003, tactical nuclear weapons of the Strategic Deterrence Forces could be used to "prevent political pressure against Russia and her allies (Armenia, Belarus, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan)." Thus, the Russian leadership "is officially contemplating a limited nuclear war".^[10]

[edit] Nuclear proliferation

After the Korean War, Soviet Union transferred nuclear technology and weapons to the People's Republic of China as an adversary of the United States and NATO According to Ion Mihai Pacepa, "Khrushchev’s nuclear-proliferation process started with Communist China in April 1955, when the new ruler in the Kremlin consented to supply Beijing a sample atomic bomb and to help with its mass production. Subsequently, the Soviet Union built all the essentials of China’s new military nuclear industry."^[11]

Russia is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" (NWS) under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Russia ratified (as the Soviet Union) in 1968.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, a number of Soviet-era nuclear warheads remained on the territories of Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Under the terms of the Lisbon Protocol to the NPT, and following the 1995 Trilateral Agreement between Russia, Belarus, and the USA, these were transferred to Russia, leaving Russia as the sole inheritor of the Soviet nuclear arsenal. It is estimated that the USSR had approximately 39,000 nuclear weapons stockpiled at the time of its collapse.

The collapse of the Soviet Union allowed for a warming of relations with NATO. Fears of a nuclear holocaust lessened. In September 1997, the former secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Lebed claimed 100 "suitcase sized" nuclear weapons were unaccounted for. He said he was attempting to inventory the weapons when he was fired by President Boris Yeltsin in October 1996.^[12] In 2005, Sergey Sinchenko, a legislator from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc said 250 nuclear weapons were unaccounted for. When comparing documents of nuclear weapons transferred from Ukraine to weapons received by Russia, there was a 250 weapon discrepancy.^[13] Indeed, several US politicians have expressed worries and promised legislation addressing the threat.^[14]

In 2002, the United States and Russia agreed to reduce their stockpiles to not more than 2200 warheads each in the SORT treaty. In 2003, the US rejected Russian proposals to further reduce both nation's nuclear stockpiles to 1500 each. Russia, in turn, refused to discuss reduction of tactical nuclear weapons^[10]

Russia is actively producing and developing new nuclear weapons. Since 1997 it manufactures Topol-M (SS-27) ICBMs.

There were allegiations that Russia contributed to North Korean nuclear program, selling it the equipment for the safe storage and transportation of nuclear materials.^[15]Nevertheless, Russia condemned Korean nuclear tests since then.^[16]

[edit] Biological weapons

Soviet program of biological weapons has been initially developed by the Soviet Ministry of Defense (between 1945 and 1973).^[17]

Soviet Union signed the Biological Weapons Convention on April 10, 1972 and ratified the treaty on March 26, 1975. Since then, the program of Biological weapons was run primarily by the "civilian" Biopreparat agency, although it also included numerous facilities run by the Soviet Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Chemical Industry, Ministry of Health, and Soviet Academy of Sciences.^[17]

According to Ken Alibek, who was deputy-director of Biopreparat, the Soviet biological weapons agency, and who defected to the USA in 1992, weapons were developed in labs in isolated areas of the Soviet Union including mobilization facilities at Omutininsk, Penza and Pokrov and research facilities at Moscow, Stirzhi and Vladimir. These weapons were tested at several facilities most often at "Rebirth Island" (Vozrozhdeniya) in the Aral Sea by firing the weapons into the air above monkeys tied to posts, the monkeys would then be monitored to determine the effects. According to Alibek, although Soviet offensive program was officially ended in 1992, Russia may be still involved in the activities prohibited by BWC^[17]

In 1993, the story about the Sverdlovsk anthrax leak was published in Russia. The incident occurred when spores of anthrax were accidentally released from a military facility in the city of Sverdlovsk (formerly, and now again, Yekaterinburg) 900 miles east of Moscow on April 2, 1979. The ensuing outbreak of the disease resulted in 94 people becoming infected, 64 of whom died over a period of six weeks.^[17]

[edit] Chemical weapons

Russia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention on January 13, 1993 and ratified it on November 5, 1997. Russia declared an arsenal of 40,000 tons of chemical weapons in 1997.

Russia met its treaty obligations by destroying 1% of its chemical agents by the Chemical Weapons Convention's 2002 deadline [2], but requested technical and financial assistance and extensions on the deadlines of 2004 and 2007 due to the environmental challenges of chemical disposal. This extension procedure spelled out in the treaty has been utilized by other countries, including the United States.

Russia has built three chemical weapons destruction plants: at Gorny, at Kambarka, and at the Maradykovsky complex. Four more facilities are still under construction at other locations. Lieutenant General Valery Kapashin reaffirmed in 2007 that Russia> would fulfill its obligations under the CWC to destroy all of its chemical weapon stockpiles by 2012;^[18] however, U.S. analyses have claimed that neither Russia nor the U.S. will finish operations by that date.^[19] Russia's program is financed by Russian funding as well as money from the U.S. and other countries.

[edit] See also

• Father of all bombs
• United States and weapons of mass destruction

[edit] References

1. ^ "Global Chemical Weapons Disarmament Operations Approach Halfway Mark", Global Security Newswire, National Journal Group, February 20, 2009
2. ^ Russian Nuclear Forces
3. ^ Obama team gearing up to cut nuke arsenal
4. ^ Nuclear weapons: Who has what?
5. ^ Analysts cannot calculate number of Russian, U.S. nuclear warheads
6. ^ "Strategic arms deal may be drafted before Obama visit - Kremlin". RIA Novosti. 2009-06-02. http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090602/155147413.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-03. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Russia's nuclear capabilities by Adrian Blomfield, Telegraph, 5 June 2007
8. ^ Russian Nuclear Forces
9. ^ Obama team gearing up to cut nuke arsenal
10. ^ ^{a b} Russia's Nuclear Policy in the 21st Century Environment - analysis by Dmitri Trenin, IFRI Proliferation Papers n°13, 2005
11. ^ Tyrants and the Bomb - by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review,October 17, 2006
12. ^ Russian Officials Deny Claims Of Missing Nuclear Weapons
13. ^ Russian and Ukrainian Officials Deny New Allegations That Nuclear Warheads Were Lost in the 1990s
14. ^ Nuclear Dangers: Fear Increases of Terrorists Getting Hands on 'Loose' Warheads as Security Slips
15. ^ Russia secretly offered North Korea nuclear technology - by a Special Correspondent in Pyongyang and Michael Hirst, Telegraph, September 7, 2006.
16. ^ Russia expresses serious concern over DPRK nuke issue
17. ^ ^{a b c d} Alibek, K. and S. Handelman. Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World – Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran it. Delta (2000) ISBN 0-385-33496-6
18. ^ RIA Novosti - Russia - Russia will destroy only its own chemical weapons - general
19. ^ http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d031031.pdf

[edit] External links

• Abolishing Weapons of Mass Destruction: Addressing Cold War and Other Wartime Legacies in the Twenty-First Century By Mikhail S. Gorbachev
• Russia's Nuclear Policy in the 21st Century Environment - analysis by Dmitri Trenin, IFRI Proliferation Papers n°13, 2005
• Nuclear Threat Initiative on Russia by National Journal
• UK statement on the chemical weapons convention - Link is not available now
• 1999 Nuclear stockpile estimate
• Nuclear Notebook: Russian nuclear forces, 2006, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March/April 2006.
• Nuclear Files.org Current information on nuclear stockpiles in Russia
• Chemical Weapons in Russia: History, Ecology, Politics by Lev Fedorov, Moscow, Center of Ecological Policy of Russia, 27 July 1994