Late last fall, senior Republican congressional staffers heard a Pentagon briefer pooh-pooh the missile as inconsequential because Russia's strapped military didn't have the funds to begin serial production. But on December 27, the Strategic Rocket Forces deployed the first Topol-M2s at the Tatishchevo missile base in the Saratov region, and announced that the missiles would soon be stationed in Valdai, the southern Urals, and the Altai region. Speaking of the Urals, we are reminded of Yamantau Mountain, site of one of the largest underground construction projects in human history. A nuclear blast-proof subterranean city sprawling across an area the size of the greater Washington, D.C. area inside the beltway, the complex is described in one Russian newspaper as a new strategic missile command center. Top Russian military leaders refuse to comment on it, and the Clinton administration hasn't pushed the issue.
Construction work continues unabated.
The money has to come from somewhere, and the IMF is just as good a source as any. Troubling, too, are persistent reports that Russia maintains a clandestine binary chemical weapons program in violation of its international commitments. While concealing binary weapons production, it appeals to the West for aid to destroy obsolete chemical weapons stocks. And even President Clinton has been unable to certify to Congress that Moscow has terminated its germ warfare development and production. We don't know, because Washington has never wanted to embarrass Moscow by asking.