Former Soviet Union: Resetting the Nuclear Clock

Since the Soviet Union dissolved before the eyes of an astonished world last December, the West has been worrying about what will happen to the nuclear weapons scattered among several new and potentially unstable states. Last week U.S. officials revealed that Washington had been given assurances that all strategic missiles in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus would be eliminated within seven years, leaving only Russia with missiles capable of striking the U.S. Washington, which is developing a plan to help the new republics dismantle their nuclear arsenals, also disclosed that all tactical nuclear weapons are concentrated in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and that by July they will be either decommissioned or withdrawn to Russia.

Although the Administration considers these agreements to be ironclad, Presidents of the Commonwealth of Independent States have been jockeying for power since the formation of that body, and the lingering fear of Russian dominance may yet make the nuclear card a hard one for other republics to discard.