By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Bush said yesterday that his administration is reviewing U.S. aid to Russia used to stop the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
Bush told reporters that nonproliferation programs are being reviewed to determine their usefulness. "We want to make sure that any money that is being spent is being spent in an effective way," Bush said.
The president said the review does not indicate a deepening of the chill developing between Washington and Moscow. "It's in our nation's best interest to work with Russia to dismantle its nuclear arsenal," he said.
The New York Times, citing an unidentified senior official, reported yesterday that the National Security Council initiated the review. The council has previously been critical of the programs.
The United States spends $760 million a year trying to help Russia safeguard its weapons and hazardous materials.
The review will examine dozens of programs run mainly by the State Department, Pentagon and Department of Energy that have poured money into Russia and the former Soviet republics since the end of the cold war.
White House and National Security officials declined to comment Wednesday night to The Associated Press on the report.
The wide-ranging programs are designed to help Russia secure its vast nuclear weapons and material and ensure its underpaid nuclear scientists are not lured to work for rogue nations or terrorists.
A senior administration official stressed to The Times that the review is aimed at improving the quality and effectiveness of the programs, and was not aimed at dismantling them.
The review comes at a time of growing tension between Russia and the United States after the discovery of a suspected Russian spy in the top ranks of the F.B.I.
It received a strong endorsement Wednesday from former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., an influential Democrat who helped to craft nonproliferation programs with Russia.
Nunn said the new administration should take a comprehensive look at the programs, and that the effort "needs better cooperation ... to fit into a broader strategic picture."
President Bush's nominee as ambassador to Japan, former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker Jr., has recommended more money for programs helping Russia safeguard its nuclear materials.
"I don't think there's any issue, really, that's more important than making sure we don't annihilate ourselves through an accident or something," Baker told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday.
"The fact that we haven't blown ourselves up so far is no guarantee that we couldn't still do it," he said. "Or that some rogue nation or rogue group hasn't yet successfully stolen a nuclear weapon doesn't mean they can't still do it if all you've got is a padlock" on a door to prevent theft.
A task force Baker co-chaired with former White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler recommended that $30 billion be spent over eight to 10 years to secure or neutralize all of Russia's nuclear weapons-usable material and keep its scientists performing legitimate work.
But government and private sources told the AP that Bush's fiscal year 2002 budget proposes cutting more than $72 million from an Energy Department program that helps eliminate uranium and plutonium from nuclear weapons dismantled in the former Soviet Union.
