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Rosatom, Russia’s secretive, Mafia style, nuclear corporation

In 2002, a Russian scientist, well aware of covert activities by Russian authorities, declared to the Boston Globe that Rosatom is a “super-Mafia.” Secrecy is omnipotent within the governmental organization. 

Russia’s Dangerous Nuclear Legacy – Analysis Eurasia Review, By: Richard Rousseau June 18, 2012“……The post-Cold War world has an elusive international structure. Powerful global corporations, as well as international terrorist organizations, can frustrate a search for clarity and efficiency in fighting illicit activities in finance, economy, the organized crime, or smuggling of nuclear material.

In Russia, the main culprit is Rosatom. This relic of the Soviet system still operates largely
without independent oversight, especially since June 23, 2010, when President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree that stated that Rostekhnadzor (the Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Supervision) would be henceforth under the direct control of
the government. Rosatom reports to no one in justifying how hundreds of millions of dollars are spent.
In 2002, a Russian scientist, well aware of covert activities by Russian authorities, declared to the Boston Globe that Rosatom is a “super-Mafia.” Secrecy is omnipotent within the governmental organization. A product of the Stalinist era and an embodiment of Cold
War-style secrecy, Rosatom is a web of Soviet-era reactors, laboratories and secret “closed cities” where nuclear energy is designed, built, and mass-produced.

In 2005, the head of Rosatom,
Evgeny Adamov, was arrested in Switzerland after the U.S. State
Department complained about the disappearance of $9 million it had
earmarked for Russian nuclear security measures. After being convicted
in Moscow in 2008, he managed to have the ruling overturned.

Since the signature of the START I treaty in 1991, the U.S. government
has spent billions of taxpayer dollars to upgrade nuclear security in
Russia. In January 2002, however, a report issued by Russia’s
Accounting Chamber brought to light the disappearance of $270 million
in U.S. assistance earmarked for cleaning up and building safe storage
for the country’s radioactive waste. In this same report, it was
revealed that tens of millions of dollars had also been diverted to
“research projects” that remain a mystery to this day.

Russia, in many respects, is a “failed nuclear post-Soviet state.” The
likelihood of terrorists getting their hands on nuclear bomb-making
material on the Russian black market is extremely high.
http://www.eurasiareview.com/18062012-russias-dangerous-nuclear-legacy-analysis/

June 20, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Reference