Russian nuclear forces 'enough to deter aggression'
Russia will not aspire to the same number of nuclear weapons as the United States and other Nato member nations, but will maintain forces sufficient to deter any aggression, the chief of the Russian General Staff said today.
General Yuri Baluyevsky said that Russia “has and will have nuclear deterrent forces sufficient to bring to reason anyone who could try to test the strength of our borders or tap our natural resources”.
He said that the military realised it can not afford to maintain Cold War-style parity with the West.
“We aren’t going to tighten our belts or take off our last pair of trousers to achieve parity in the number of aircraft and missiles with the United States or all of Nato,” Baluyevsky said.
“It’s impossible to achieve. We believe that a strategic parity that was determined by quantity is a thing of the past.”
Baluyevsky spoke during a presentation of he Defence Ministry’s yearbook on the nation’s military policy. The yearbook mentioned “several neighbouring nations’ desire to join Nato” among the challenges to Russia’s security.
Several ex-Soviet republics, including Georgia and Ukraine, have aspirations to join the Western military alliance. Their stance has vexed Moscow, which has warily watched Western expansion to the lands that it considered home turf.
Asked about Ukraine’s plans to join the alliance, Baluyevsky that the country had a sovereign right to join any alliance, but added that it would be reasonable to have a nationwide referendum on the issue.
Opinion polls in Ukraine indicated that a majority of Ukrainians view the nation’s Nato bid negatively.
Baluyevsky played down the negative impact of Ukraine’s Nato membership on military cooperation between the two ex-Soviet nations, saying that Russia no longer depends on Ukraine to build its strategic nuclear weapons.
Baluyevsky also said that the military does not contemplate the possibility of a military conflict with Nato, but added that while Russia and the United States cooperate in fighting terrorism, the two nations sometimes have conflicting interests.
“Russia has interests in the ex-Soviet republics,” he said. “Sometimes our interests collide in some regions, and some in the United States don’t like it. It’s their problem.”
Commenting on the Iranian nuclear crisis, Baluyevsky said that the latest developments indicated that a military option could not be excluded, but he added that “it’s necessary to find a diplomatic solution”.
He also said that Russia would continue its military co-operation with Syria, which he said was “historically determined”.
