The Russians have linked the proposed nuclear arms cuts to the planned missile shield in Eastern Europe. The Russians have stated that they will not cut their nuclear arms if the US does not abandon the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Thing is that the Russians wouldn't need to get rid of that many delivery vehicles under the proposed cuts since the number of delivery vehicle are already near the proposed limit.
Seems like the Russians are trying to squeeze the most out of the US without giving up anything but token reductions in their nuclear arsenal.
President Obama stated that the missile shield in Eastern Europe will only be abandoned if the Iranians drop their desire for nuclear weapons. It looks as though the Obama administration is trying to get assurances from the Russians that they will try to limit their military cooperation with Iran in exchange for the abandonment of the missile shield in Europe.
The Russians are trying to get concrete reductions in US nuclear arms while Obama is only looking for token response from Russia. Seems like a fair deal to me. Breitbart
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's foreign minister warned Tuesday that the U.S. would jeopardize progress toward a new treaty with Russia on nuclear arms cuts if it decides to create a global missile defense system. [...]
"If our partners (the U.S.) make a decision to create an American missile defense system with global reach, then that will doubtless place a big question mark over the prospects for further reductions in strategic offensive weapons," he said.[...]
The planned START replacement pact calls for each side to reduce strategic warheads to a range of 1,500 to 1,675, and strategic delivery vehicles to a range of 500 to 1,100. Current limits allow 2,200 warheads and 1,600 delivery vehicles.
A limit at the low end of that range would be better for Russia, which is already well below the 1,100 figure.
"We favor the maximum possible limitations on delivery vehicles," Lavrov said.
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