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- Russia is continuing a Cold War-era
program to build deep underground bunkers, subways and command posts to
help Moscow's leaders flee the capital and survive a nuclear attack,
The Washington Times has learned.
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- Among the ambitious projects: a secret
subway being built directly to the residence of Russian President Boris
Yeltsin outside Moscow.
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- "The underground construction appears
larger than previously assessed," a CIA report labeled "top secret"
reported two weeks ago.
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- "Three decrees last year on an
emergency planning authority under Yeltsin with oversight of underground
facility construction suggest that the purpose of the Moscow-area
projects is to maintain continuity of leadership during nuclear war."
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- A copy of the report was obtained
by The Washington Times from defense sources. A CIA spokesman declined
to comment.
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- Disclosure of the secret multibillion-dollar
construction program comes less than two weeks after President Clinton
and Mr. Yeltsin agreed in Helsinki to extend the deadline for nuclear
arms cuts under the START II treaty because of Russian concerns over
"dismantlement costs."
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- U.S. officials said the Russian
spending on strategic defenses, coupled with ongoing procurement
of new strategic missiles and submarines, raises questions about Moscow's
claims not to have funds needed to carry out START II reductions.
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- The outlays also raise new worries among
some U.S. officials about whether U.S. aid to Russia is allowing Moscow
to spend its money on building new strategic forces and facilities.
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- "How can the United States be so
gullible to accept Russian claims that it doesn't have the money
to comply with START II when it's made the decision to modernize its
forces and build these underground facilities?" asked one U.S.
government defense official.
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- According to the CIA report, construction
work is continuing on a "nuclear-survivable, strategic command
post at Kosvinsky Mountain," located deep in the Ural Mountains
about 850 miles west of Moscow. Satellite photographs of Yamantau Mountain,
also located about 850 miles west of Moscow in the Urals near the town
of Beloretsk, show continued digging at the "deep underground
complex" and new construction at each of the site's above-ground
support areas, the CIA stated. Yamantau Mountain means "Evil
Mountain" in the local Bashkir langauge.
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- "The command post at Kosvinsky
appears to provide the Russians with the means to retaliate against
a nuclear attack," the CIA report said. "The rationale for
the Yamantau complex is unclear."
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- According to the CIA report, the Russians
are building or renovating four complexes within Moscow that would
be used to house senior Russian government leaders during a nuclear strike.
-
- A map published in the report showed
new subway construction under way from Victory Park Station in Moscow
to Mr. Yeltsin's dacha, some 13 miles west of the Kremlin and about
four miles from the Moscow Ring Road.
-
- Additionally, the CIA report stated that
a bunker for Russian leaders at Voronovo, about 46 miles south of Moscow,
is nearly complete. A second bunker located at Sharapovo, some 34
miles from Moscow, has a special underground subway running directly to
it.
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- The subway system for Russian leaders
allows for "rapid evacuation of leaders during wartime from Moscow,"
the CIA said. Presumably, the leadership would then be flown to the Yamantau
or Kosvinsky complexes. According to the report, Mr. Yeltsin and Prime
Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin endorsed the construction of the bunkers,
subways and command posts, and funding for the Yamantau facility was
listed for the first time this year in the Russian federal budget.
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- Peter Pry, a former CIA analyst and
author of a new book on Russian nuclear operations, said the continued
construction of the Russian strategic defense sites is ominous and
cannot be dismissed by U.S. officials as "inertia" from
Cold War-era strategic policies.
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- "It shows they take the threat
of nuclear war so seriously that they're willing to spend scarce resources
on it," Mr. Pry said, adding that he was not familiar with the
CIA report. "These things are tying down billions of dollars in rubles
that could go into other enterprises the Russians need -- for
example, providing housing for Russian military officers."
-
- Mr. Pry said Russian press reports
say the underground facility at Yamantau Mountain covers an area
as large as the Capital Beltway. The Clinton administration has been
providing hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid to Russia to
help Moscow dismantle its nuclear arsenal.
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- Despite the aid, the CIA report shows
that the Russians are building both defensive and offensive strategic
facilities and weapons, including a new type of long-range strategic missile
and a new strategic missile submarine.
-
- Russian Defense Minister Igor Rodionov
said in February that both the reliability and control of Russian nuclear
weapons were in question because of the deterioration of the armed forces,
but Pentagon officials have dismissed the statements as posturing by Mr.
Rodionov in a bid to boost his budget.
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- Mr. Pry said the Russian construction
program also shows that Russian leaders do not see a diminished
threat of nuclear conflict. "This is a manifestation of the Russians'
continued war-fighting attitudes," Mr. Pry said. "They believe
in the idea that you can survive and prevail in a nuclear conflict.
These kinds of facilities are designed to survive for weeks and
months."
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- By contrast, U.S. nuclear protective
facilities have been largely shut down. The complex underneath the
Greenbriar resort in Virginia was abandoned, along with another
facility in Virginia known as Mount Weather, U.S. officials have said.
-
- The main nuclear command facility now
in existence is located inside Cheyenne Mountain, Colo., but it was
only designed to withstand small nuclear blasts and would easily be knocked
out in a large Russian missile attack.
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- By contrast, there are no nuclear weapons
currently in the U.S. arsenal capable of damaging the new Russian
strategic defense facilities.
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- _______________
-
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- "War to the hilt between communism
and capitalism is inevitable. Today, of course, we are not strong enough
to attack. Our time will come in thirty or forty years. To win, we shall
need the element of surprise. The Western world will need to be put to
sleep. So we shall begin by launching the most spectacular peace movement
on record. There shall be electrifying overtures and unheard of concessions.
The capitalist countries, stupid and decadent, will rejoice to cooperate
to their own destruction. They will leap at another chance to be friends.
As soon as their guard is down, we shall smash them with our clenched fist."
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- (Dmitrii Z. Manuilskii) (Lenin School
of Political Warfare, Moscow, 1931)
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