Russian President Vladimir Putin Wednesday signed a law punishing by up to ten years of jail the theft of arms of mass destruction and nuclear material, amid concern that such material could be used by terrorists, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
The theft of nuclear, chemical or other arms of mass destruction or of material allowing to produce them would be punished by a five to ten year jail sentence, the law said.
Failure to ensure that arms of mass destruction are safely guarded would be punished by a sentence of three to seven years.
The law signed Wednesday had been passed by Russian parliament in April.
Several senior US intelligence officials in February expressed alarm at the fact that weapons-grade nuclear material had been on several instances stolen from Russian facilities.
Their announcement came amid warnings by top US officials that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist network had been making a concerted effort to obtain the know-how and materials to manufacture a crude nuclear or radiological device.
