Paragraph #6 discusses the Russian denial of access to their bases. There are other articles out about this happening to GAO inspectors very recently.
Hurdles in Destroying Russian Missiles
March 4, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Russia-Missiles.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bush administration officials acknowledged frustrations Tuesday in a program to dismantle weapons held by the former Soviet Union, including the failure of two projects costing a total of $200 million.
But the benefits of the program in keeping weapons out of terrorists' hands far outweigh the problems, they told the House Armed Services Committee.
``The question isn't will we have setbacks, but how effectively we respond to this because in my view, the programs are too important to be allowed to fail,'' said Linton Brooks, acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Over 12 years, the United States has spent $7 billion to help Russia and other former Soviet republics dismantle weapons of mass destruction and keep them from being used against Americans. The program, strongly backed by Democrats and Republicans, has eliminated 6,032 war heads, 847 ballistic missile launchers and 856 ballistic missiles, according to the Defense Department.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the committee chairman, said the program ``has accomplished a great deal.'' But he said it has expanded from a program specifically targeting nuclear weapons to include projects ``sometimes only tangentially related to the original purpose or to the principle of reducing direct military threats to the United States.''
A congressional auditor told the committee that Russia has also often denied U.S. officials access to nuclear and biological sites. Joseph A. Christoff of the General Accounting Office also said the Russian government has not always paid its share of program costs.
Hunter focused on the program's two ``white elephants'': One was a $106 million plant in Krasnoyarsk that the United States built to dispose of liquid missile fuel. When the plant was completed, U.S. officials were told that the fuel had been diverted to Russia's civilian space program.
More recently, U.S. officials spent $95 million for designing and testing a facility in Votkinsk to remove solid propellant from Russian rocket motors, only to have the project blocked by local officials because of pollution concerns.
``These are remarkable stories of massive waste of American taxpayer dollars,'' Hunter said. ``I think we are all troubled when we think about the amount of dismantlement that could have taken place with the hundreds of millions of dollars had they not been wasted.''
J.D. Crouch II, assistant defense secretary for international security policy, told Hunter the money wasted on the liquid fuel plant ``was a major wake-up call for us.''
It prompted the Defense Department to re-examine all projects in the program, begin semiannual reviews with Russian officials, and push for greater access to Russian nuclear weapons storage sites. It also began replacing informal agreements with signed contracts.
In the case of the Votkinsk plant, U.S. officials had been working with Russians who wrongly thought they would be able to get the permits needed for the project, Crouch said.
He said the administration would continue to pursue worthy projects ``though we will not be naive in the way we pursue them.''
Democrats on the committee were in the odd position of defending the Bush administration from Republican criticism.
``I'm very concerned that we're hypercritical of the programs right now,'' said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif.
Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., said ``I've seen these programs in place and I'm here to testify, they work.''
Hunter and the committee's vice chairman, Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., stressed their support for the program, but said they want to see it administered better and have the Russians more open and accountable.
The two have been in an unusual public dispute with another influential Republican chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar of the Foreign Relations Committee. Lugar, of Indiana, and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., were the founders of the program to dismantle Soviet weapons.
Hunter and Weldon maintain they were unfairly criticized last fall by Sen. Richard Lugar, now chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who said at a public hearing they were blocking funding for the program.
Without mentioning Lugar, by name, Weldon said his comments were ``categorically, absolutely and outrageously false.''
After Crouch told him that conditions set by the committee to make Russia more accountable have proven to be helpful, Hunter said, ``Would you send that message to Sen. Lugar's staff? I think he needs to have that.''