Posted on 06/11/2009 4:50:33 AM PDT by Schnucki
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said his country could give up nuclear weapons if everyone else that had them did the same.
The remarks came as Russian and US officials negotiate a successor to the 1991 Start treaty on arms reduction, which expires in December.
US President Barack Obama will discuss the issue in Moscow next month with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.
Meanwhile a top general said Russia should not go below 1,500 warheads.
Col-Gen Nikolai Solovtsov, who commands Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces, said Moscow needed this number to ensure its own security.
But he added that the final decision rested with political leaders.
Russia currently has 3,909 warheads and the US 5,576, according the US state department. A limit of 1,700 to 2,200 warheads by 2012 have already been agreed by both sides.
But Mr Putin questioned whether there was a need for nuclear weapons at all.
"If those who made the atomic bomb and used it are ready to abandon it, along with - I hope - other nuclear powers that officially or unofficially possess it, we will of course welcome and facilitate this process in every possible way," he said, in a veiled reference to the US.
He was speaking at a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has also endorsed the idea of reducing the number of nuclear weapons to zero.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Cold...glowing...dead...hands.
I think THEY believe Obambi willl sa “yes, yes -oh joy” to this
And I can walk to the moon if I only had a bridge.
I bet we bite on this hook, hard.
We won’t remember the “disarmament” that ook place in Europe with the intermediate range missiles (we destroyed ours, they moved theirs beyond some mountain rage per treaty).
Plus, you can’t destroy plutonium or U235. They can be stored and stockpiled against a future need, but not destroyed.
and they have a bridge for sale ...
Well The Chosen One has always had elimination of all nuclear weapons as a long-term goal. And here it is handed to him without even having to ask!
Putin’s no idiot, he knows that he has a total SUCKER on the line, and he plans to reel him in.
There is no way that Russia will disarm, considering their neighborhood...regardless of the punishment that Obama has in store for the US.
Yeah....and I remember Gorbachev saying they’d have a complete ballistic missile ban by 1996 if we gave up on SDI. Reagan knew not to trust the Soviets. Zero is gullible enough to trust anyone.
Here’s how this works:
Russia cons the U.S. into PAYING THEM to “disarm”.
SOME of their antiquated delivery systems are dismantled, but the nuclear components are retained.
The U.S. actually disarms, because the liberals and the media will ensure the fact.
Personally, I think that the Russians, with their cultural paranoia will stay a lot calmer, knowing they have enough nukes to blast any would be invader off the planet. The one Russian General who is talking about a minimized but potent number of nukes, seems to be the most rational one at this point.
“Russia ‘could drop nuclear arms’”
On who?
And we believe the Russians because..............
when you ban nukes, only the rogue nations would have them.
Do you guys smell that? Smells like BS to me.
What this is is gun control on a much larger scale. Just like in DC where you can’t own a handgun, the people who will still have guns are the criminals, gang bangers, drug dealers, etc. Put this on the world stage with nuclear weapons and it has unlimited potential for the most evil and rogue regimes to have the ability to control us all with threats of the use of these weapons. Unfortunately, we have a President that does not get that. He simply would rather have this utopian view that if we all Kumbaya together, surrender our nukes, and work all this out at the UN that the world will be a happy place.
Who in their right mind would trust the word of an ex-KGB goon? Putin is saying this crap while having an alternative plan to hide/exclude many of them.
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