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Home > Senator Richard Lugar Voted Arms Control Person of the Year

richard lugar.jpeg

richard lugar.jpeg [1]

Post date: 
Mon, 2010-01-04 09:58

Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) garnered the highest number of votes in an online poll to determine the "2009 Arms Control Person of the Year." Lugar was nominated for "his long-running support for U.S. financial contributions to assist with the construction of Russia's chemical weapons demilitarization complex, which began work this year to neutralize about 2 million shells and warheads stored nearby that are loaded with VX, sarin and soman."  In 1999, Senator Lugar visited Shchuchye and demonstrated the proliferation danger of chemical weapons by placing a VW-filled shell in a briefcase. After more than $1 billion in U.S. aid, the site became operational in 2009 with Lugar attending its official opening ceremony [2] in May.  

"The opening of the Shchuchye site was an important development in 2009 because it will accelerate the destruction of millions of dangerous and obsolete chemical weapons," said Daryl G. Kimball [3], executive director of the Ploughshares Funded Arms Control Association [4], "His [Lugar] leadership, along with Senator Sam Nunn's, was [also] instrumental in founding the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program that is still working to secure dangerous former Soviet nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and can serve as a model for related efforts around the globe."

 

 

Arms Control Association
http://www.armscontrol.org/2009ArmsControlPOTY [5]
Source URL: https://ploughshares.org/issues-analysis/article/senator-richard-lugar-voted-arms-control-person-year#comment-0

Links
[1] https://ploughshares.org/file/1428
[2] http://lugar.senate.gov/newsletter/2009/06/feature.html.
[3] http://www.ploughshares.org/expert/37
[4] http://www.armscontrol.org
[5] http://www.armscontrol.org/2009ArmsControlPOTY