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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