RUSSIA BUILDS GIANT WAR HQ
Wednesday April 17th, 1996 / posted April 28, 1996
Source: Daily Express newspaper
Spy satellites reveal secret new complex
from Ivor Key in New York
Russia is building a giant secret underground military complex deep in
the Ural Mountains.
Spies at America's Central Intelligence Agency, who have been studying
satellite photos of the area, are baffled by the project.
They say the mammoth construction, a remonder of the chilliest days of
the Cold War, could be anything from a nuclear-proof command post to a
secret weapons factory.
Tens of thousands of workers building the complex under a mountain
called Yamantau have constructed a railway, highways and a town.
Russian officials have let slip that it was originally begun during
the era of Cold War warrior Leonid Brezhnev, when the old Soviet Union
was locked in an arms race with the West.
Nobody has ordered a halt to the work, although the cash-starved
government is struggling with unrest over shortages and a growing
budget deficit.
The project could become a hot potato for President Clinton in this
election year.
He wants to give Russia hundreds of millions of dollars to dismantle
old nuclear weapons.
To win Congressional approval, he has to prove the Russians are not
undertaking any new military projects over and above their defensive
needs.
Clinton, fearing that the complex may be a weapons factory, is said to
be upset that they refuse to give an explanation.
"We can't say with confidence what the prpose is, and the Russians are
not very interested in having us go in there," a senior American
official said in Washington.
"It is being built on a huge scale and involves a major investment.
These investments are being made at a time when the Russians are
complaining they do not have the resources to do things pertaining to
arms control."
A Defence Ministry Spokesman in Moscow clammed up when asked if he had
anything to say about the revelations.
The ministry would not talk about facilities "under construction in
the interests of strengthening the security of Russia".
When the local media questioned the existance of the complex,
officials described it variously as a mining site, a repository for
treasures, a dumpe for nuclear materials and a hideaway for Russian
leadergs in case of war.
Some senior Pentagon officers say they believe it could be a command
and control bunker.
But a White House official countered: "It could also be a possible
project to maintain the capability to carry out wartime production
after a nuclear strike and a storage area for weapons. If it is only
command and control, why aren't they more transparent about it?"
The news comes on the eve of a summit of world leaders in Moscow to
discuss cutting the risks of a nuclear disaster.
John Major leaves London today to visit Prague and Kiev before the
summit in Moscow on Friday.
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