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Russian Exercises Spurred by U.S. Nuclear Weapons Research, Russian General Says
Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian military, said yesterday that a strategic military exercise that began yesterday reflected, in part, Russian concerns over U.S. plans to research new nuclear weapons (see GSN, Feb. 10). The exercise is not directed against any specific country, including the United States, Baluyevsky said. “The enemy is imaginary,” Baluyevsky said. “There is no hint whatsoever that the enemy is the United States, or any other country. The United States holds a similar exercise each year and no one is making a fuss about it,” he said. Baluyevsky also said, though, the exercise was prompted, in part, by Russia’s concerns over U.S. plans to research low-yield nuclear weapons. “They are trying to make nuclear weapons an instrument of solving military tasks, lower the threshold of nuclear weapons use,” Baluyevsky said. “Shouldn’t we react to that, at least on the headquarters level? I’m sure that we should and we are doing that,” he added (International Herald Tribune, Feb. 11). Russia also plans to hold an exercise later this year to demonstrate to NATO that its nuclear arsenal is secure, Baluyevsky said yesterday. “In April 2004 we will hold an exercise in the north to show the safety of stored nuclear arms,” he said. “We will invite our NATO colleagues to attend,” Baluyevsky added (Reuters/iWon.com, Feb. 10).
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