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Senior MP says Russia may follow suit if USA fails to destroy warheads
Russian AVN Military News Agency web site

Moscow, 14 March: Chairman of the State Duma international affairs committee Dmitriy Rogozin does not exclude that, if the United States decides to store dismantled nuclear warheads instead of destroying them, Russia may make similar moves. "If the Americans continue with this line, we may do the same", Rogozin told the press in Moscow on Thursday [14 March].

Two scenarios can be considered at the Russian-US negotiations on strategic offensive weapon cuts, the lawmaker said. The first scenario provides for an open procedure of reduction of dismantled nuclear warheads and missiles, that is their destruction. If the United States rejects it and prefers to limit itself to signing "a certain executive agreement" instead of a full-scale treaty, it means that the country "wants to set a large strategic reserve that will be kept in stock; this is not reduction anymore", Rogozin said.

The second scenario leaves "a free choice of nuclear triad" to the parties. It means that "we will be able to store instead of reduce nuclear warheads, creating a similar reserve that can be recovered quickly in case of necessity", the lawmaker said.

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