U.S. pulls out of nuclear pact with Russia

When the United States and Russia signed an agreement in the spring setting the two countries on a course toward civilian nuclear cooperation, the pact, subject to hard negotiations, was cheered as "a symbolically laden illustration of post-Cold War tolerance between Washington and Moscow," the Los Angeles Times' Megan Stack reports from Moscow.

That was in May. Then, in August, the brief Russian-Georgian war broke out over the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia.

The civilian nuclear agreement has become one of the casualties.

President Bush announced today that the United States is pulling out of the agreement, under which the U.S. and Russia would have shared knowledge about civilian nuclear technology, and Russia would have become a repository for spent nuclear fuel.

In a message to Congress, Bush said he was taking the action "in view of recent actions by the Government of the Russian Federation incompatible with peaceful relations with its sovereign and democratic neighbor Georgia."

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Vano Shlamov / AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[Richard Ludwig]

nothing new, good old Bushy creates more damage before he passes the helm on, just to avoid the new administration would have some different agenda.

[fairbro]

So the US will not use Russia as a nuclear waste dump.

Wow, what a punishment.

Washington sends the Coast Guard (supposed to be guarding the US coast against smugglers and illegal immigrants) to patrol the Black Sea, and now the US will not store radioactive waste in Russia.

All this in response to Russia's protecting its own citizens from attack by a Georgian despot.

What punishments next?