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MOSCOW, Feb 22, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Polish and Danish inspectors who wrapped up a visit to military bases in the Kaliningrad enclave last month concluded there were no nuclear weapons there, a Russian official said Wednesday.
The head of the Kaliningrad branch of FSB counterintelligence, Alexander Suvorov, told Interfax that the inspectors from the two NATO member states had told a news conference on January 18 that "there are no nuclear weapons on the territory of the Kaliningrad region."
There was no independent confirmation of the Russian's official's assertion.
The Washington Times reported originally last month that Russia had moved nuclear weapons into the region, citing U.S. intelligence sources.
A recent follow-up report in the newspaper said that U.S. spy satellites had pinpointed Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad, contradicting Moscow's stout denials of a transfer of battlefield arms.
Satellite photographs allegedly revealed weapons being unloaded from a ship in the Baltic port and moved to a military airfield in Kaliningrad.
However, Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev denied the press report, which was dismissed as a "provocation" by Kaliningrad's governor Vladimir Yegorov. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)
