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| Half of Russia’s Nuclear Materials Unaccounted for — U.S. Senator Half of Russia’s nuclear materials are unaccounted for, a U.S. senator has said, citing classified intelligence and warning that the weapons could be used by terrorists plotting new attacks against the United States. Vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee John Rockefeller expressed worry that Russia may be a greater proliferation threat than North Korea. “In the sense that half of the nuclear materials, pieces and parts of it, are unaccounted for by the Russians —- and a lot of them, these places are in rural areas —- I think you can ... have a real debate as to which is more threatening to the world right now,” Rockefeller said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. He was referring to a detailed briefing from CIA officials on U.S. security threats. “The point is that a lot of those people who protect those places can be bribed.” The statement came days before a scheduled meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President George Bush. The two are set to discuss this and other issues in the Slovakian capital Bratislava on Thursday. “We had a hearing last week in which they talked about loose nukes or unaccounted for nuclear weapons that the Russians had in their stockpile but which have disappeared,” the democratic senator said. “And I think that President Putin ought to be very worried about that within his own country, not only from Siberia, but also Chechnya, a former part of his country, et cetera. And I think that should be his focus. And I think it will be part of his focus.” The head of the Russian environmentalist group Ekozaschita, Vladimir Slivyak, told Russia’s Ekho Moskvy radio station that Senator Rockefeller’s comments must be taken seriously, and that indeed some of Russia’s nuclear materials have not been accounted for. “In the past 10-15 years there have been a number of cases of people trying to steal nuclear materials, while experts say that only a part of them were apprehended, so some part of nuclear materials was apparently indeed stolen,” he told the radio station. Slivyak also called on U.S. congressmen to share intelligence on nuclear materials with the Russians, because this would considerably help in solving the problem. Officials from the CIA have not commented on the issue.
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