Russia Tries to Ease NATO Concerns Over Nuclear Weapons Policy

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said yesterday that Russia is not adopting a more aggressive nuclear weapons strategy and remained committed to cooperating with NATO, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Oct. 9).

Recent media reports have described a Russian Defense Ministry document that threatened to revise Moscow’s nuclear strategy if NATO did not ease its “offensive military doctrine.”

“Russia still regards nuclear weapons as a deterrent,” Ivanov said after meeting with NATO officials in Colorado, but, “In no scenario is there mention of going first with the use of such weapons” (Paul Ames, Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 10).

Ivanov also said, however, that Russia reserved the right to use nuclear weapons “if all other means are exhausted and we have no other way out.”

“We are not going to give that up,” he said (Tom Squitieri, USA Today, Oct. 10).

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