After Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov indicated that Russia intends to continue sub-critical nuclear testing and Russian Nuclear Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev mentioned the possibility of resuming full testing of nuclear weapons, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba sent letters protesting these statements to President Putin and Alexander N. Panov, the Russian ambassador to Japan.

Mayor Akiba's letter said, "These moves not only disregard the hopes of the A-bomb survivors and people around the world for the abolition of nuclear weapons, they also fly in the face of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which Russia has ratified." The mayor also mentioned the June agreement reached at the G8 Summit at Kananaskis to fund Russian efforts to prevent proliferation of its nuclear materials. He strongly criticized Russia's stance as "turning your back on the international community."

Mayor Akiba also sent a joint letter with Nagasaki mayor Iccho Itoh requesting Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi to urge Russia to cease sub-critical testing of nuclear weapons and to ask Russia to retract the officials' statements.

Defense chief Ivanov says Russia to continue nuclear tests

MOSCOW, June 28 Kyodo - Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov indicated Thursday Russia will continue conducting subcritical nuclear tests that do not cause sustained nuclear chain reactions.

Speaking to reporters after visiting a nuclear test site in the Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, Ivanov said Russia ''will continue experiments that do not involve nuclear explosions.''

Subcritical nuclear tests are different from traditional nuclear experiments in that they are halted before nuclear materials reach ''criticality,'' in which a nuclear chain reaction is triggered.

Russia and the United States argue that such tests are necessary to maintain the capability of existing nuclear weapons and do not infringe on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on nuclear arms.

But antinuclear groups say such tests can be used to develop new types of weapons. ==Kyodo

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