Russia says no lowering of nuclear threshold WIRE:02/16/2000 15:35:00 ET Link MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has not lowered the threshold for using its huge nuclear arsenal in its revamped national security concept, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, reporting on a Security Council meeting. Russia's new security concept, approved by Acting President Vladimir Putin on Jan. 6, said Moscow envisaged the potential use of atomic weapons "to repel armed aggression," a statement which was interpreted as meaning the threshold had been lowered. "Statements that Russia appears to have lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons are untrue," the ministry quoted Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov as saying Tuesday. Ivanov, a former KGB spy, said the use of nuclear weapons was not ruled out. "Russia has never stated the possibility of being the first to use nuclear weapons. At the same time, Russia does not make a commitment to not being the first." Ivanov met diplomats Tuesday to clarify Russia's revamped national security concept. Under the previous concept published in 1997, Russia reserved the right to use its nuclear arsenal, the world's second largest, only if its very existence were threatened. The new version seemed to reflect Russia's more antagonist view of the world by saying Moscow's main security task was to deter any attacks, nuclear or conventional, against Russia and its allies. The concept had also listed one of the main foreign threats as NATO's eastern enlargement and own new strategy. But Wednesday, NATO and Russia agreed to thaw their ties significantly after a year of Cold War-style tensions over Kosovo and Chechnya. They made clear that the relations, frozen by Russia after the alliance bombed Yugoslavia last year, were still a little chilly. Copyright )2000 ABC News Internet Ventures

-- Possible Impact (posim@hotmail.com), February 16, 2000

Answers

Thanks for posting a good article.

Two quick thoughts here. The Head-Red Putin is a hard shell radical. Secondly, the Soviet bear is emerging from his Rip Van Winkle act.

Not good!

-- Irving (irvingf@myremarq.com), February 16, 2000.

Trouble is, they have the nuclear option and little else. Bad place for them to be...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), February 17, 2000.