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Sunday, January 20, 2008
MOSCOW: Russias military chief of staff said on Saturday that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in preventive strikes to protect itself and its allies, the latest aggressive remarks from increasingly assertive Russian authorities.
Gen. Yuri Baluyevskys comment did not mark a policy shift, military analysts said. Amid disputes with the West over security issues, it may have been meant as a warning that Russia is prepared to use its nuclear might.
We do not intend to attack anyone, but we consider it necessary for all our partners in the world community to clearly understand... that to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including preventively, including with the use of nuclear weapons, Baluyevsky said at a military conference in a remark broadcast on state-run cable channel Vesti-24.
According to the state-run news agency RIA-Novosti, Baluyevsky added that Russia would use nuclear weapons and carry out preventive strikes only in cases specified by the doctrinal documents of the Russian Federation. The national military doctrine approved by President Vladimir Putin in 2000 says Russia may use nuclear weapons to counter a nuclear attack on Russia or an ally, or a large-scale conventional attack that poses a critical risk to Russias security. Retired Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, formerly a top arms control expert with the Russian Defence Ministry, said he saw nothing new in Baluyevskys statement.
He was restating the doctrine in his own words, Dvorkin said. Moscow-based military analyst Alexander Golts said that when Russia broke with stated Soviet-era policy in the 2000 doctrine and declared it could use nuclear weapons first against an aggressor, it reflected the decline of Russias conventional forces in the decade following the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Baluyevskys statement means that, as before, we cannot count on our conventional forces to counter aggression, Golts told Ekho Moskvy radio. It means that as before, the main factor in containing aggression against Russia is nuclear weapons.
Putin and other Russian officials have stressed the need to maintain a powerful nuclear deterrent and reserved the right to carry out preventive strikes. Putin, who has sought to boost his popularity at home and win support abroad with his vocal criticism of US foreign policy, has said that Russia opposes the use of preventive military attacks but reserves the right to carry them out because other countries do so.
But in most of their public remarks on preventive strikes, Russian officials have not specifically mentioned nuclear weapons, and top officials have said preventive strikes against terrorists would not involve nuclear weapons.
Baluyevsky spoke at a time of increasingly strained relations between Moscow and the West. They are embroiled in persistent disputes over US plans for missile defence facilities in former Soviet satellite states that have joined Nato, alliance members refusal to ratify an updated European conventional arms treaty, and Kosovos independence bid.
Like Golts, Moscow-based military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said Russia plays up its nuclear deterrent because of its weakness in terms of conventional arms. We threaten the West that in any kind of serious conflict, well go nuclear almost immediately, he said. But in the absence of a real threat from the West, he said, Its just talk.
Baluyevsky identified no specific nations or forces that threaten Russia. According to the ITAR-Tass news agency, he said threats to global security include the striving by a number of countries for hegemony on a regional and global level a clear reference to the United States and terrorism.
MOSCOW: Russias military chief of staff said on Saturday that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in preventive strikes to protect itself and its allies, the latest aggressive remarks from increasingly assertive Russian authorities.
Gen. Yuri Baluyevskys comment did not mark a policy shift, military analysts said. Amid disputes with the West over security issues, it may have been meant as a warning that Russia is prepared to use its nuclear might.
We do not intend to attack anyone, but we consider it necessary for all our partners in the world community to clearly understand... that to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including preventively, including with the use of nuclear weapons, Baluyevsky said at a military conference in a remark broadcast on state-run cable channel Vesti-24.
According to the state-run news agency RIA-Novosti, Baluyevsky added that Russia would use nuclear weapons and carry out preventive strikes only in cases specified by the doctrinal documents of the Russian Federation. The national military doctrine approved by President Vladimir Putin in 2000 says Russia may use nuclear weapons to counter a nuclear attack on Russia or an ally, or a large-scale conventional attack that poses a critical risk to Russias security. Retired Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, formerly a top arms control expert with the Russian Defence Ministry, said he saw nothing new in Baluyevskys statement.
He was restating the doctrine in his own words, Dvorkin said. Moscow-based military analyst Alexander Golts said that when Russia broke with stated Soviet-era policy in the 2000 doctrine and declared it could use nuclear weapons first against an aggressor, it reflected the decline of Russias conventional forces in the decade following the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Baluyevskys statement means that, as before, we cannot count on our conventional forces to counter aggression, Golts told Ekho Moskvy radio. It means that as before, the main factor in containing aggression against Russia is nuclear weapons.
Putin and other Russian officials have stressed the need to maintain a powerful nuclear deterrent and reserved the right to carry out preventive strikes. Putin, who has sought to boost his popularity at home and win support abroad with his vocal criticism of US foreign policy, has said that Russia opposes the use of preventive military attacks but reserves the right to carry them out because other countries do so.
But in most of their public remarks on preventive strikes, Russian officials have not specifically mentioned nuclear weapons, and top officials have said preventive strikes against terrorists would not involve nuclear weapons.
Baluyevsky spoke at a time of increasingly strained relations between Moscow and the West. They are embroiled in persistent disputes over US plans for missile defence facilities in former Soviet satellite states that have joined Nato, alliance members refusal to ratify an updated European conventional arms treaty, and Kosovos independence bid.
Like Golts, Moscow-based military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said Russia plays up its nuclear deterrent because of its weakness in terms of conventional arms. We threaten the West that in any kind of serious conflict, well go nuclear almost immediately, he said. But in the absence of a real threat from the West, he said, Its just talk.
Baluyevsky identified no specific nations or forces that threaten Russia. According to the ITAR-Tass news agency, he said threats to global security include the striving by a number of countries for hegemony on a regional and global level a clear reference to the United States and terrorism.
