GENERAL ROMANOV PUNISHED FOR HIS UTTERANCES








MOSCOW, MARCH 1, 2001. /A RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT/ -- Lieutenant-General Vyacheslav Romanov, chief of the national center for diminishing nuclear danger, has been punished for utterances to the effect that, if the United States unfolds its national missile defense system, Russia may deploy its field and medium-range missiles. This was said today by Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, the RIA Novosti correspondent reports. 


	Sergeyev has flatly denied these pronouncements of General Romanov, who "discourses on the possibility of taking measures outside his authority and official status."  The marshal said that no measures of what General Romanov spoke were "planned". "For that a political decision has to be taken," said Sergeyev. 


	Marshal Sergeyev did not specify what was meant by "punishing" Romanov.