Russian WMD Facilities Prepare to Consolidate Under New Ministry, Report Finds

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The new Russian Industry and Energy Ministry appears set to consolidate most of Russia’s efforts to manage its WMD facilities as part of an ongoing government restructuring, according to a report released this week by the Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council (see GSN, April 23).

Russian President Vladimir Putin in March initiated the effort, which saw the dissolution of about half of Russia’s Cabinet-level ministries in an act described then by Russian officials as a badly need “administrative reform.”

The restructuring also included creation of the new Industry and Energy Ministry, which includes several governmental agencies with nonproliferation-related functions. The ministry is headed by Victor Khristenko, who briefly served as prime minister in late February, and includes Deputy Ministers Ivan Materov and Andrei Rus, the report says.

Among the agencies included in the new ministry is the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy (Rosatom), which was formally the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry (Minatom). Both the agency’s director, former Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev, and its deputy director for nuclear weapons issues, Igor Borovkov, are holdovers from the former Minatom, according to the report. While the new structure of the agency would probably not be finalized until the end of this month, it is set to assume full control over Russia’s nuclear activities, including the nation’s “nuclear defense complex,” the report says, citing an April 6 government decree.

There has been speculation among some experts as to the level of control the new Atomic Energy Agency would be given over Russia’s nuclear weapons program. Such concerns, according to the RANSAC report, arose out of a footnote in the March governmental decree announcing the restructuring effort that read: “On the issue of the nuclear defense complex, [Rosatom] is subordinate to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.” Possible interpretations of the clause had included that various functions might be divided between the agency and the ministry, that the two might share dual jurisdiction or that the Defense Ministry might have assumed increased bureaucratic influence in the Atomic Energy Ministry. 

Citing Russian officials including Khristenko, the report says that it “appears unlikely” that Russia’s nuclear complex would be divided into military and nonmilitary sections. 

In addition to the former Minatom, the new Industry and Energy Ministry has absorbed the former GosAtomNadzor (GAN) agency as the new Federal Service for Atomic Inspection, which will monitor security at Russian nuclear facilities and research reactors, as well as oversee the accounting, control and physical protection of nuclear materials, the report says. It also says that while the service has retained the basic structure as its former incarnation, there are concerns about its possible level of independence now that it is part of the Energy and Industry Ministry, which also oversees the Atomic Energy Agency.

The new Industry and Energy Ministry also includes the new Federal Industry Agency, which has been given responsibility for eliminating Russia’s stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons. The new department replaces the former Russian Munitions Agency, which had been responsible for biological and chemical weapons disposal, according to the report. 

Few details are known as to the structure of the new agency, which could delay both current and future disposal efforts, the report says. It also says, though, that former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Alyoshin has been appointed director, increasing the possible significance of the agency and of biological and chemical weapons disposal within the Industry and Energy Ministry.

“Alyoshin is one of the players in Moscow,” RANSAC researcher Matthew Bouldin, who prepared the report, told Global Security Newswire this week.

Bouldin praised the progress of the Russian governmental reorganization to date, but also said that is was still uncertain as to when the new Russian governmental structure would be finalized and in place.

“They’re on their way,” he said.

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