MOSCOW. July 29 (Interfax-AVN) - Fifty officials from 17 NATO member nations will observe the Avaria 2004 exercise in nuclear weapons disaster liquidation in Russia, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
"NATO experts will come to Russia for the first time to observe an exercise in prevention of nuclear weapons seizure by terrorists and in coping with consequences of a nuclear munitions disaster," the spokesman told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The main stage of the maneuvers scheduled for August 3-5 in the Murmansk region, will involve about 1,000 people from various law-enforcement agencies, including 700 servicemen of the Defense Ministry, he said.
NATO experts will be given a chance to see and assess the state of affairs in the Defense Ministry and Russia as a nuclear power in general. They will check Russia's ability to cope with consequences of a nuclear weapon disaster, regardless of its cause, the spokesman said. "Terrorism may be the most likely cause at the present time," he noted.
"The Russian Defense Ministry is hoping that conduction of such exercises will become a norm of international cooperation, and that Russian experts will be able to study NATO nations' experience in coping with consequences of nuclear weapons disasters," the spokesman added.