ABSTRACT
The issue of illicit trafficking in nuclear material started to attract the attention of the world community in the early 1990s, coinciding with the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991. The political crisis and severe economic downturn in Russia and the other countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU), accompanied by run-away inflation, collapse of the standards of living, rise of unemployment and criminality, and underfunding of the nuclear sector, were the background to the sudden rise in nuclear crime. The inadequate security practices at the former Soviet nuclear facilities, which were designed to protect against intruders from the outside, rather than from the insider threat, as well as the problem of open and poorly protected borders with the FSU countries, aggravated the situation even further. Criminals could divert and move their illicit goods across national borders without much risk of being detected.
