Russia Willing to Adopt Deeper Nuclear Cuts, Officials Say

Two Russian officials said yesterday that Moscow is open to reducing its strategic nuclear arsenal to levels lower than required by a 2002 treaty with the United States (see GSN, May 5).

Russia is “ready to reduce to 1,500 warheads or less,” said Lt. Gen. Vladimir Verhovtsev, deputy director of the Defense Ministry’s department of nuclear safety and security.

However, Moscow remains committed to pursuing “a situation where there are no new nuclear threats on our border,” said Anatoly Antonov, director of the Foreign Ministry’s department for security and disarmament.

The Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty requires the United States and Russia to reduce their deployed strategic arsenal to less than 2,200 warheads by 2012.

Some non-nuclear states have complained that the nuclear powers are not disarming quickly enough, the Associated Press reported today.

Antonov said disarmament “depends on all of us,” rather than just two nations.

“What about other countries that continue to work on nuclear weapons?” he said.

“We’re telling our partners we can’t close our eyes” to developments on Russia’s borders and around the world, Antonov added.

In answer to questions about why Russia has announced it is developing a new nuclear missile system if it is committed to arms reduction, Verhovtsev replied, “developing doesn’t mean possessing” (Edith Lederer, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, May 17).

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