Cooperative Threat Reduction Program and Russian-American Relations in the Late 1990s: Power vs. Institutions

摘要

December 1999. Russian ground and air forces tighten their stranglehold on the Chechen capital of Grozny. Graphic images of civilian, rebel, and even Russian military casualties make their way into the Western media outlets. Despite the fact that Chechnya is geographically a part of sovereign Russia, the United States government stridently protests what it considers to be the wholesale slaughter and displacement of the Chechen people. The Russian President ignores these pleas, citing several terrorist acts allegedly committed by Chechens in Moscow earlier in the year. At the same time, a 10 person American team from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) arrives at Sheremetyevo-2 airport in Moscow to begin a two-week Audit and Examination (A&E) of export control equipment and facilities provided under the auspices of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (CTR). Immediately upon arrival, the team is met by American Embassy personnel and told that the mission has been scrapped along with any further CTR funding or assistance until the differences over the conflict in Chechnya are resolved.