
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 22, 1992                   TAG: 9203220031
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FRED HIATT THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Medium

NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT OF EX-SOVIET REPUBLICS STALLED

Months after U.S. officials appeared to have reached an understanding with non-Russian republics about the future of nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union, the situation seems as muddled and potentially dangerous as when the country collapsed.

U.S. officials believed they had achieved agreements that would leave only Russia as a nuclear state. Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan were to transfer their tactical nuclear weapons to Russia by July 1 for dismantling, and their longer-range strategic missiles were to be transferred after that.

But Ukraine has halted the transfer of weapons, and a senior general in Moscow said there almost is no chance of meeting the July 1 schedule. Kazakhstan has shipped all its tactical nuclear warheads to Russia but is expressing reservations about giving up its intercontinental missiles. Even Belarus seemed tempted by the recent Ukrainian example.

The issue of how the four nations should control nuclear weapons during a transitional period has been reopened for debate, Ukrainian officials say.

The result is that a major goal of U.S. diplomacy since the breakup of the Soviet Union - ensuring that the number of nuclear nations in the region stays at one - again is in doubt.

And any hope that the situation would be quickly clarified disappeared in the acrimony of a summit meeting of leaders of former Soviet republics Friday that resolved almost nothing and left some presidents fairly spitting sarcasm at each other.

The non-Russian republics that harbor some of the 27,000 warheads of the former Soviet Union continue to proclaim their intention to become non-nuclear, neutral and peaceful nations. But considerable ambiguity remains.

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, for example, said after the summit that his vast nation straddling Europe and Asia will seek to become a non-nuclear state and "will join all treaties and agreements" in that regard. But he also suggested that Kazakhstan may be unwilling to turn over any more of its missiles to Russia until Russia and other nations agree to destroy theirs.

Some explanation of the apparent contradictions may have been provided by Viktor Antonov, minister of defense industries in Ukraine, who Thursday said his country would honor its agreements by removing all tactical nuclear weapons from combat status by July 1, rather than by shipping them to Russia.

Many analysts said the chief motive was Ukrainian mistrust of Russia.

by CNB