well the Soviet Union uh now really called the Commonwealth of Independent States
 		um is a mess  um uh i think one of the biggest things we have to worry about is the uh control of nuclear arms especially Ukraine and Russia
 	
 	
 		yeah i my main concern right now is first of all at this point with the current government and situation i don't see them as any threat
 		to us at the moment however with the current state of the central government being as um tenuous as it is it wouldn't take much to uh cause a kind of fascist revival
 		within uh Russia or any of the republics and then we do have a real clear foreign policy and a a problem and a threat
 		because of the number of nuclear weapons that are there we seem to have lost the ability to control what's going on in the country
 	
 	
 		right
 	
 	
 		and any country which has as many nuclear weapons as they do is certainly is a threat but perhaps not at this second
 	
 	
 		yeah you know i suppose you you say to yourself what will no rational uh person would would would launch uh nuclear weapons
 		um but i guess that that's wouldn't necessarily hold uh for some radical government or temporary take over even
 	
 	
 		well i work in international radio um and uh one of the groups that we're working with has been Radio Eurovan which is in Armenia
 		and i you know in a sense you'd think being a you know an American or a westerner it would make sense that we there is no real great threat that these people aren't nuts
 		but you listen to the what the Armenians have to say about their neighbors the Azerbaijanis and they launch in a second if they had an access to those weapons
 	
 	
 		right
 		
 
 	
 	
 		there is a great deal of religious hatred in that part of the world and this is stuff that goes back to the days of Christ i mean
 	
 	
 		yeah yeah
 	
 	
 		this is not a two hundred year or or a fifty year uh problem this goes back centuries and the amount of hatred
 		i mean there's accusations of using chemical weapons now both on both sides and
 	
 	
 		yes yeah
 	
 	
 		it into a republican strife amongst these various um former parts of the Soviet Union
 		i think you could have a regional use of nuclear weapons but i don't think that they see us as a threat anymore
 	
 	
 		right i guess i agree with that um
 	
 	
 		
 
 		um the other concern is as time goes on they could become an economic threat um but i think what will happen is they will go through an Asian
 	
 	
 		
 
 		right
 	
 	
 		type of uh introduction into the business world where beginning there'll be cheap labor and uh you you know then we will have an i'd say thirty years if things stay the way things are now
 		they could become another Korea or Malaysia or Thailand type of  source for cheap labor where American products could be built
 		and uh i think that's where they are headed
 	
 	
 		right well i think that that there's a uh qualitative difference that uh Russia and and much of the Soviet Union still has a lot of natural resources that some of these other countries you mentioned just never had
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		so that uh  you know the commonwealth states could could easily you know leapfrog the uh
 		the you know stepping stone path uh laid out by the by the Southeast Asian countries
 	
 	
 		well they do have a huge oil reserve the problem is that they don't have the ability to exploit it at this point
 	
 	
 		right
 	
 	
 		they could become a major source for oil for us as well as timber
 		and um other products agriculture could become very important for them using modern farming techniques in the Ukraine
 		and i suspect they will form some sort of economic union when all is said and done  i don't think i don't think
 	
 	
 		yeah yeah yeah we're we're still going through a a uh you know a settling period
 		you know they're not sure who they want their leaders to be they're not sure how they want the you know uh relationships between the states to to shape so i agree with you know they're they need another couple years to to let them uh settle down
 		and uh start cooperating
 	
 	
 		well i certainly hope that we will i i wish we would incorporate some sort of marshall plan over there because i think one of the problems that this country has in dealing with them is we aren't doing enough right now
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		and the chances for things getting out of control and another fascist type of regime rising are quite good
 		um anyone at this point who can give them food security and make them you know feel some pride again could become a major threat especially some of these republics
 		which are striving to become independent from central Moscow and that kind of administration
 		um and if we don't get our tushes in there and spend more effort and money and funds trying to get things back on the ground there i think we're in