Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09STATE34419
2009-04-08 17:15:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Secretary of State
Cable title:  

48TH MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND

Tags:  KNNP PARM TSLP RS 
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P R 081715Z APR 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PRIORITY 
INFO AMEMBASSY ASTANA 
AMEMBASSY BISHKEK 
AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 
AMEMBASSY KYIV 
AMEMBASSY OSLO 
AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 
AMEMBASSY SEOUL 
AMEMBASSY TBILISI 
AMEMBASSY TOKYO 
AMEMBASSY YEREVAN 
DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
USEU BRUSSELS
C O N F I D E N T I A L STATE 034419 


MOSCOW PASS VLADIVOSTOK
MOSCOW PASS YEKATERINBURG
HELSINKI PASS ST. PETERSBURG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/08/2019
TAGS: KNNP PARM TSLP RS
SUBJECT: 48TH MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY CENTER (ISTC) GOVERNING BOARD, MOSCOW

Classified By: ISN/CTR Director Matthias Mitman, Reasons 1.4 (b),(d)

-------
SUMMARY
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C O N F I D E N T I A L STATE 034419


MOSCOW PASS VLADIVOSTOK
MOSCOW PASS YEKATERINBURG
HELSINKI PASS ST. PETERSBURG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/08/2019
TAGS: KNNP PARM TSLP RS
SUBJECT: 48TH MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY CENTER (ISTC) GOVERNING BOARD, MOSCOW

Classified By: ISN/CTR Director Matthias Mitman, Reasons 1.4 (b),(d)

--------------
SUMMARY
--------------


1. (SBU) Summary: The ISTC Governing Board's (GB) 48th
meeting in Moscow on March 26 focused on transforming the
Center to make it more relevant to changed global
nonproliferation threats in a way that would maintain GoR
support for the Center. Russian MFA and Rosatom officials
argued that the Center's primary mission -- redirection of
former Russian weapons scientists -- has been successfully
completed and that member states now should draft a new or
revised agreement reformulating ISTC objectives if the Center
is to continue operating. The GoR officials also noted the
ISTC's upcoming 15th Anniversary should emphasize that it has
achieved its nonproliferation goals in Russia.


2. (SBU) In separate meetings with ISN/CTR Director Matthias
Mitman and ESTcouns on the margins of the GB meeting, Russian
Academy of Science (RAS) and RosAtom officials stressed the
need to develop a new Russian legal framework for a
transformed ISTC. The current ISTC charter was provisionally
applied by Russian government decree in 1993, pending Duma
ratification. Since this was designed to be a temporary
solution to launch the ISTC, RAS and RosAtom officials
signaled that the Russian MFA believes a new legal basis
should be created as the ISTC moves beyond its original
mission of scientist redirection in Russia. In the coming
months, the U.S. will work with the GoR and other ISTC
partners to develop and implement new strategies to transform
the Center, including the possibility of amending the
existing agreement. End Summary.

--------------
ISTC TRANSFORMATION
--------------


3. (U) The ISTC Governing Board (GB) held its 48th meeting in
Moscow on March 26. The GB continued earlier discussions on
transforming the Center into a more efficient and relevant
organization for scientific cooperation, including on
nonproliferation and counterterrorism issues. ISN/CTR
Director Matthias Mitman and ISN/CTR Section Chief Kathryn
Insley led Department participation.


4. (SBU) Echoing a theme heard before at meetings of the ISTC
GB and of the Global Partnership (GP) Against the Spread of

Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, Russian
representatives (MFA and Rosatom) at the GB meeting stressed
that redirection of former weapons scientists, the primary
nonproliferation goal incorporated in the 1993 Agreement
establishing the ISTC, has been fully accomplished in Russia.
Accordingly, the existing Agreement -- which had never been
ratified by the Duma but had been "provisionally applied" for
the past 15 years on the basis of a Yeltsin decree -- should
be amended to reflect this fact clearly. Russian officials
stated that the old ISTC mission might still retain some
relevance in so far as the lessons learned in Russia might
now be applied to areas outside Russia where a proliferation
risk still existed. One Russian suggestion was that the
ISTC's mission be linked with that of the Global Partnership
and that this be reflected in a new ISTC agreement.


5. (SBU) GB members acknowledged the success of the ISTC in
accomplishing its original nonproliferation mission of
scientist redirection in Russia. At the same time, the U.S.
and several of the other Board members made the point that
the ISTC continued to have an important role as a nexus of
international nonproliferation cooperation and that any
transformation of the ISTC should reflect this. These
exchanges followed informal March 4-5 discussions on
the same topics at U.S.-hosted working level meetings in
Paris. (Note: Russia did not attend the Paris meetings.)


6. (C) The Russian Party agreed to submit a paper outlining
its vision for a transformed ISTC at the upcoming ISTC
Coordination Executive Committee meeting in Ottawa on May 5,
and asked that other Parties submit their proposals as well.
In margin discussions, other Russian officials invited the
U.S. and others to come forward first with proposals to amend
or replace the existing Agreement. (Comment: This likely
reflects the GoR's inability to develop a unified position on
the future of the ISTC. MFA and certain Rosatom officials
apparently do not see a continued role for the ISTC, while
others in Rosatom and the Russian Academy of Science would
like it to evolve into a Center for international scientific
collaboration along the lines of the U.S. perspective. End
Comment.)


7. (SBU) In accordance with the decision of the GB on the
question of ISTC transformation, the U.S. and other members
will formulate interim proposals for the May 5 Coordination
Executive Committee (CEC) meeting in Ottawa. The CEC
discussions should provide a basis for decisions to be taken
at the next GB July meeting in Minsk, with a view to having
an amended ISTC agreement (or other agreed-upon mechanism to
institute transformation principles)available for a possible
high-level event commemorating the ISTC's 15th anniversary in
December.

--------------
SUSTAINABILITY
--------------


8. (U) The GB noted "with satisfaction the progress made" in
implementation of sustainability plans for several research
institutes: Khlopin Radium Institute (St. Petersburg,
Russia),Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (Obninsk,
Russia),and the Institute of Nuclear Physics in the National
Nuclear Center (Kazakhstan). The GB instructed the ISTC
Secretariat to continue work on sustainability plans for: the
Siberian Chemical Combine (Seversk, Russia),the former
"Caustik" Pavlodar Chemical Plant (Kazakhstan),and the State
Scientific Research Institute for Organic Chemistry and
Technology and its Shikany branch. The GB also asked the
Secretariat to look for funding possibilities for the
Boreskov Institute of Catalysis (Novosibirsk, Russia) and the
Institute of Immunological Engineering in Lyubachanniy. The
GB reported that the Secretariat would begin preparing the
next stage of the sustainability program, taking into account
lessons learned and available budgetary means.

--------------
TAX ISSUES
--------------


9. (U) The Russian Ministry of Finance confirmed that grant
recipients of ISTC funds will not be subject to taxation. It
was also noted that Value Added Tax (VAT) payments for the
first quarter of 2001 and for May 2007 had now been refunded
to ISTC. The GB requested that the Secretariat continue to
pursue with the Finance Ministry refund of other VAT paid
2001 - 2007.

--------------
CENTER PERSONNEL ISSUE
--------------


10. (U) The GB discussed one long-standing personnel issue at
length, reviewing the ISTC staff member's allegations and
complaints to the ISTC Secretariat and its member
governments. As a result, the GB instructed the ISTC
Executive Director to issue a letter to the staff member
regarding the GB decision to affirm the suspension and
subsequent actions by the ISTC Secretariat.

--------------
BILATERAL MEETINGS
--------------


11. (C) On March 27, RAS Vice President Nikolai Laverov told
ISN/CTR Director Matthias Mitman and ESTcouns that RosAtom
Deputy Spasskiy had recently sent a letter to President
Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin about the ISTC. Laverov
noted that some GoR officials had been concerned that ISTC
activities had stimulated leakage of classified Russian
information and had commercial aspects inconsistent with
Russian intellectual property laws. Laverov stated, however,
that Spasskiy's letter did not address these issues but
rather the ISTC's legal foundation. Spasskiy apparently
believes that, because the ISTC has accomplished its original
mission, the 1993 Yeltsin decree to apply the ISTC treaty
provisionally should not be used as a legal basis for a
transformed Center.


12. (C) Laverov agreed that the Yeltsin decree remained valid
and the ISTC could legally operate in Russia indefinitely,
pending further GoR executive action or passage of a law by
the Duma. Laverov suggested that the Duma should enact new
legislation to harmonize the ISTC's charter with existing
Russian laws passed since 1993. He did not underestimate the
difficulty of this approach, and offered to support this
approach with Duma members.


13. (C) In a separate March 27 meeting, RosAtom Senior
Advisor Lev Ryabev told Mitman and ESTcouns that the current
situation of the ISTC is as complicated as it was in 1992 and
that finding a solution now would be equally difficult.
Ryabev noted that the original ISTC charter was referred to
as the "KGB Agreement" in honor of the three senior officials
who made the Center possible (Russian FM Kozyrev, German FM
Genscher, and SecState Baker.) (Comment: The implication was
clear - we will need senior-level engagement by the parties
to reach a compromise on the ISTC's future. End comment.)


14. (C) Ryabev suggested scrapping the language in the old
ISTC charter, and suggested drafting a new document that
would describe the parties' common interests in the Center
and specify mechanisms for achieving them. He stressed that
he did not object to including non-proliferation as an ISTC
objective, but cautioned this could generate an adverse
reaction from other GoR ministries. Ryabev proposed several
cooperative S&T activities that he believed appropriate for a
transformed ISTC, including research on detection of
molecular nuclear particles and chemicals, non-proliferation
consequences of the nuclear energy renaissance, security
issues related to fast reactors using plutonium, reprocessing
of spent fuel for generation IV fast reactors, and follow-on
activities from the U.S-Russia 123 Agreement and the Global
Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. He noted that many
of the redirected Russian weapons scientists are now
approaching retirement age and that the ISTC should focus on
engaging younger scientists, including those working in the
non-government sector who have WMD-applicable knowledge.


15. (C) Ryabev underlined that a written document would be
required for transforming the ISTC, although he did not
respond to inquiries for more specifics. He noted that,
although the ISTC has many GoR stakeholders, the Russian MFA
will play the most important role. That said, he lamented
that the internal reorganization within the MFA has hampered
efforts to forge an interagency policy on the ISTC's future
and that MFA Deputy Minister Ryabkov had yet to signal a
clear MFA position.


CLINTON