A billboard sign outside the entrance to Sarov illustrates the Los Alamos/Sarov Sister City Initiative, which works in conjunction with the State Department's Open World Program. The program was started in 1999 by the Library of Congress and authorized by Congress to increase understanding between the United States and Russia and to support Russia's efforts to strengthen its democratic reforms. Sarov previously was known as Arzamas-16, a secret nuclear weapons research city in the former Soviet Union.
