CHECHEN AUTHORITIES CLAIM TO DEFUSE RADIOACTIVE BOMB.

A Russian television channel reported on January 3 that a bomb containing radioactive materials had been discovered and defused in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya. The bomb was reportedly discovered on the highway linking the town of Argun with Chechnya’s capital Djohar (formerly Grozny). NTV television quoted an official of Chechnya’s national security service as saying that the explosive device was initially treated as an ordinary bomb, but that after it was discovered to contain radioactive elements, it was diffused by specialists of the republic’s Ministry of Emergency Situations and taken to a decommissioned mine as a safety measure. The official told NTV that the device, which he said no longer posed any threat, would have caused a large number of casualties had it detonated. According to NTV, radioactive materials were discovered in nearly the same spot a year ago, though in that instance they were in the form of medical equipment, rather than an explosive device. In November 1995, a container of radioactive cesium was dug up from a Moscow park after then-Chechen rebel field commander Shamil Basaev told NTV where the container was buried. Basaev said at the time that the Kremlin should consider the buried container his contribution toward “disarmament.” The television station reported that Chechnya has manufactured radioactive industrial materials for more than twenty years, and that such materials were not safeguarded during the Chechen war of 1994-96 (NTV, January 2).

ESTONIA’S LEGISLATORS WILL NEED TO KNOW ESTONIAN LANGUAGE.