Russia plans in an updated military doctrine not to rule out the first use of nuclear weapons in response to a number of security threats, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 8).
(Oct. 14) -
Russia displays Topol-M nuclear-capable ballistic missiles at a parade in Red Square last May. Moscow has indicated it does not plan in a revised military doctrine to rule out the first use of nuclear weapons (Natalia Kolesnikova/Getty Images).
Russia and the United States are moving forward in efforts to scale back their nuclear arsenals, but the former Soviet superpower could still come under threat from clashes within more defined geographical confines, national security council chief Nikolai Patrushev told the newspaper Izvestia in remarks set for publication today.
"Conditions of using nuclear weapons to repel an aggression with the use of conventional weapons not only in a large-scale but also in a regional and even local war have been revised," Patrushev said, failing to specify what events might trigger a Russian nuclear backlash.
"Moreover, different variants are considered to allow the use of nuclear weapons depending on a certain situation and intentions of a would-be enemy. In conditions critical for national security one should not also exclude a preventive nuclear strike on the aggressor," he said.
According to Moscow's current policy, the "most important task is to be able to deter, including with the use of nuclear weapons, an aggression of any scale against Russia and its allies."
Russia's high reliance on nuclear deterrence has been forced partially by problems with its its conventional military forces, which often lack up-to-date equipment and face cutbacks as part of a modernization push, according to Reuters.
President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to receive the updated military strategy before the end of 2009, Patrushev said (Dmitry Solovyov, Reuters, Oct. 13).