nuclear-news

Praise from Putin for Soviet’s nuclear spies

Putin praises Cold War moles for stealing U.S. nuclear secrets By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW | Wed Feb 22, 2012   (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin praised Cold War-era scientists on Thursday for stealing U.S. nuclear secrets so that United States would not be the world’s sole atomic power, in comments reflecting his vision of Russia as a counterweight to U.S. power.

Spies with suitcases full of data helped the Soviet Union build its atomic bomb, he told military commanders. “You know, when the States already had nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union was only building them, we got a significant amount of information through Soviet foreign intelligence channels,” Putin said, according to state-run Itar-Tass.

“The were carrying the information away not on microfilm but literally in suitcases. Suitcases!”……. It has been known for decades that there were spies among the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, the U.S. atomic bomb design operation. Putin suggested those who helped Moscow build its bomb acted out of concern for humanity.

“It was the cream the scientific world that was gathered in America,
and I personally have gotten the impression that they consciously gave
us information on the atom bomb,” Putin was quoted as saying.

“They did this consciously because the atom bomb had been used on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki and scientists from mankind’s intellectual
elite at the time understood what unilateral possession of such a
weapon might lead to.”   ……
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/22/us-russia-putin-bomb-idUSTRE81L22H20120222

February 23, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, secrets,lies and civil liberties