Russia Voices Ire Over U.S. Sanctions on 3 Institutes

Russian officials erupted in indignation Wednesday over U.S. sanctions imposed on three science institutes, describing accusations that they are helping Iran build nuclear weapons as unfounded and unfair.

“Strong-arm measures or sanctions against our organizations are counterproductive for Russian-American relations,” a dour Prime Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov said.

The new sanctions, announced Tuesday in Washington, are the latest round in a drawn-out battle over Russia’s nuclear cooperation with Iran--a country viewed by the United States as a rogue state but considered moderate by Russia and many European countries.

Russia acknowledges helping Iran build a nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr but insists that the technology will not be used to develop nuclear weapons.

The sanctions prohibit the U.S. government and private firms from doing business with the three institutes, but the restrictions are expected to have little effect because only one of the entities has any dealings with the United States.

The sanctions have already had an emotional effect, however, increasing Russians’ impatience with what they perceive as U.S. bullying.

The U.S. move “is a pretext for something,” groused Defense Minister Igor D. Sergeyev, “but exactly what is not clear.”

The three institutes--the D.I. Mendeleyev University of Chemical Technology, the Moscow State Aviation Institute and the Scientific Research and Design Institute of Power Technology--join seven other Russian companies and agencies sanctioned by the White House last summer on similar allegations.

Russian Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny O. Adamov accused the U.S. of duplicity. He said that, in an effort to prevent North Korea from developing nuclear weapons, the U.S. is building it a light-water nuclear power plant--technology that can’t be used to make a bomb. Adamov said the Bushehr reactor is the “exact same type.”

“There’s a double standard here,” he said in a TV interview.

In many cases, the U.S.-Russian dispute involves so-called dual-use technology--equipment and know-how connected only indirectly to nuclear weapons and missiles.

“Our graduates are qualified to work at nuclear power plants, and they know about things like uranium, heavy water and other nuclear-related materials,” said Pavel D. Sarkisov, rector of Mendeleyev University. “But they . . . have never been trained to deal with weapons-grade nuclear material, to say nothing about designing and making nuclear weapons.

“My theory of how our institute has ended up on the blacklist is that probably some of our former students were hired on an individual basis by someone commissioned by Iran to create its nuclear defense complex,” Sarkisov said.

“We could have helped Iran if we wanted to. But we never did. The fact that we are being punished for something we have never done makes our dissatisfaction with the U.S. decision twice as deep,” he said.