The United States has stopped cooperation with the Russian Federation under the nuclear program Nanna-Lugar

The United States continues to curtail bilateral cooperation with the Russian Federation due to the situation around Ukraine. After the cessation of interaction in the field of the peaceful atom, Washington plans to turn partnership with Moscow according to one of the few remaining bilateral projects - the updated Nanna -Lugar program related to nuclear security, Kommersant writes on Tuesday with reference to the representative of the National US Safety Administration Ann Harrington.

Since 1991, the Nanna-Lugar program involved US assistance to the countries of the former USSR in the disposal of the nuclear and chemical weapons removed from the armament and its delivery. The total budget of the program, according to the newspaper, amounted to $ 8.79 billion. In 2012 - six months before the expiration of the program - the authorities of the Russian Federation decided not to renew it, calling "morally outdated" and discriminatory.

However, in the end, it was decided not to bury the program at all, but to convert. In exchange for it, in June 2013, the parties entered into a temporary bilateral framework agreement, according to which the Russian Federation has achieved advantageous changes in some provisions of the program. At the request of the Russian side, the number of joint projects was reduced, the access of American inspectors to nuclear facilities was limited and work was discontinued in the storage places of warheads.

Nevertheless, the countries retained cooperation in the field of protection of nuclear materials, their disposal, customs control, and the transformation of highly enriched uranium into a low -enriched, safe storage of atomic submarines.

Now, writes Kommersant, all these projects will be frozen. Money for them is already excluded from the draft budget of the US Treasury for 2015, and the expenses for the program for international cooperation and the protection of nuclear materials (International Material Protection and Cooperation Program) were reduced by 27%. According to the newspaper, these funds were planned to complete the transportation of highly enriched uranium and plutonium to a single place of storage, as well as deposit security complexes at facilities in Ozersk and Arzamas-16.

"We stopped all work on the physical protection of nuclear enterprises in the Russian Federation. (...) Now from 40% to 70% of the necessary equipment is installed at the facilities, but the completion of the work will now have to be postponed," Harrington said.

According to the expert of Pir Center Andrei Baklitsky, the gradual refusal to work on Russian nuclear facilities has long been included in the plans of the American side, so the termination of work should not be completely associated with the situation around Ukraine. "The Ukrainian crisis could only speed up the process to which the parties went for a long time," Baklitsky believes.

Earlier it was reported that, due to the Ukrainian crisis, the United States curtails cooperation with Russia in the military sphere and the fight against drugs. In addition, the implementation of a number of projects carried out under the auspices of the bilateral presidential commission was suspended. And the American Aerospace Agency of NASA forbade its employees to communicate with Russian colleagues, including by e -mail, as well as traveling to Russia, although it is forced to continue operations to maintain safe and continuous operation of the International Space Station (ISS), carried out together with Roscosmos.