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Sen. Lugar continues disarmament push despite primary defeat
Sen. Dick Lugar's (R-Ind.) primary defeat earlier this year won't prevent him from visiting the former Soviet Union to check up on the progress of his signature nuclear disarmament program.
The GOP's elder statesman on foreign affairs announced Tuesday that he will travel to Russia and Ukraine next month to check up on the progress of the 1991 law he coauthored with then-Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) to provide U.S. expertise in helping the former Soviet Union dismantle its arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus are nuclear weapon-free thanks to the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which was expanded to countries outside the former Soviet Union in 2003.
Lugar added that he continues to work with the Department of Defense on expanding the program to other countries after leading a mission to east Africa two years ago.
Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, refused to compromise on his bipartisan and multilateral approach to foreign affairs even as the conservative Tea Party gained more control over Republican politics in recent years. That stance led to his defeat by Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, but Lugar since then has opted to tout his legislative accomplishments over a 36-year Senate career while working with committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) for Senate passage of the U.N.'s Law of the Sea Treaty later this year.
• 7,619 strategic nuclear warheads deactivated;
• 902 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) destroyed;
• 498 ICBM silos eliminated;
• 191 ICBM mobile launchers destroyed;
• 155 bombers eliminated;
• 906 nuclear air-to-surface missiles (ASMs) destroyed;
• 680 submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) eliminated;
• 492 SLBM launchers eliminated;
• 33 nuclear submarines capable of launching ballistic missiles destroyed;
• 194 nuclear test tunnels eliminated;
• 2935.812 metric tons of Russian and Albanian chemical weapons agent destroyed;
• 572 nuclear weapons transport train shipments secured;
• security at 24 nuclear weapons storage sites upgraded; and
• 39 biological threat monitoring stations built and equipped.
