April Luncheon - joint w/ Kiwanis in beautiful downtown Atlanta, 1130, Tuesday, 19 April in Loudermilk Ctr, downtown Atlanta. 

Only $11.00, payable at the door to Kiwanis Club.  Parking costs $2.00, but if you take your ticket into the luncheon, they validate it!

RSVP date is Thursday,  Apr 14 NLT 1200.   Call/email  Jan, 404-464-5351, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or WPSA voice mail 404-881-8081.  A Reservation made is a reservation paid!

Directions:

From the north.  Southbound on I75/85, take exit 249A, Courtland Street Go through five intersections (Baker, Harris, International, Ellis, Dobbs) At the sixth intersection, turn right onto Auburn The garage entrance is on the left in the middle of the block.

From the south.  Northbound on I75/85, take exit 248B, Edgewood Avenue Go straight across Edgewood.  At the next intersection, turn left onto Auburn Avenue Go through four intersections (Bell, Butler, Piedmont, Courtland) After crossing Courtland, the garage entrance is on the left  in the middle of the block

Speaker is Dr. Igor Khripunov from UGA, provided by WPSA.  His subject will be "Nuclear Security: Why Are Russia's Nukes Loose?" He will cover the recent Bratislava Summit, explain why we need to be concerned and share his experiences in dealing with this problem.

What qualifies him to be an expert, you ask?  Well, lemme tell you.  I met him when he was a First Secretary for WMD disarmament issues in the USSR Embassy back in 1990.  (For those not familiar w/ diplomatic hierarchy, a first secretary is third man on the totem pole; ranking after ambassadors and consuls.)  He was the main point of contact between our two governments on WMD disarmament issues.  Not only can he pronounce "Semipalitinsk," he's BEEN there.  Ditto for a bunch of other places that none of us can pronounce, where the USSR did what we consider to be despicable things w/ chemicals &  nukes.  Dr. Khripunov speaks impeccable American English, and speaks from first hand knowledge on his subject.  In short - if there's a body, he knows where it's buried.

He was First Secretary when the USSR collapsed; he maintained his position in the Embassy after it became the Russian Embassy again.  His international experience goes back to a 6 year stint as an international civil servant in the UN in the 1970's.  He joined the Foreign Ministry in 1977, and earned his PhD from the Moscow based Diplomatic Academy in 1983.  In 1992 he joined the UGA based Center for International Trade and Security as Assistant Director; he also teaches for the university.  He has become an American Citizen, he told me.  He lectures and writes prolifically on disarmament subjects.   His wife teaches, also at UGA, and he has a married daughter living in Atlanta.

Don Reinhard 59, Program Chair