#2 - RW 283
General says Russia won't destroy tactical nuclear weapons
Interfax

Moscow, 26 November: Col-Gen Yuriy Baluyevskiy, first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, has reported that Russia does not plan to destroy its tactical nuclear weapons.

"We do not plan to remove tactical nuclear weapons from Russia's arsenal, although we see that they are not a threat to the Americans," he said.

The General Staff representative noted that "the USA's tactical nuclear weapons deployed in Europe are for Russia acquiring a strategic nature, since theoretically they could be used on our command centres and strategic nuclear centres".

"However, I am sure that you have to be mad to propose to the political leadership of Russia and the USA that any problems should be resolved through the use of nuclear weapons," Yuriy Baluyevskiy said.