context, U.S. Assistant Deputy Secretary of Energy Rose Gottemoeller and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Fleet Admiral V. Kuroyedov have actively supported the cooperation effort.

In 2003, the U.S. Secretary of Energy praised the results of the bilateral cooperation, having said that a tangible sector of the Navy and SMF installations has been equipped with up-to-date physical security systems. As of December 2004, overall funding for the development of modern physical security systems and systems of accounting and control of nuclear materials exceeded US$300 million. Cooperation in this area has also received the highest marks from the Government Accountability Office of the U.S. Congress, and U.S. senators and representatives, who, together with technical experts, have witnessed the actual results of bilateral cooperation. At the same time, today it can be said with assurance that high-quality results have been achieved because of the cooperation and organizational efforts that were achieved from the very start of the process by both the Russian and the American sides. Many of those who started work on these systems back in 1996 continue to work on them today. This process has created a nucleus of like-minded individuals who have built the foundations of today’s cooperation based on mutual trust.