The International Science & Technology Centre initiative – a US and European Community-funded project to help retrain Russian weapons specialists – is stalled because of opposition from the Russian parliament. The programme was a major opportunity for western computer companies to get joint funding for projects in Russia. The initiative, announced last year following fears of Soviet weapons expertise getting into the hands of the likes of Iraq and Syria, had $10m to spend on joint projects proposed by western companies using former Soviet weapons specialists. Many of these are working in computer-related areas. The idea was to give employment to key professionals in the military research and development establishment, thus keeping them employed in Russia rather than having them seek work in other countries eager to gain nuclear weapons technology. One of the applicants to the initiative told Computergram that the reactionary parliament was unlikely to give the go-ahead to a scheme that could be seen as an initiative of Russian president Boris Yeltsin.
