Russia is not planning first nuclear strike - defense minister

[DuctapeFatwa]

Russia does not intend to be the first to deliver a nuclear strike, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said.

"Russia is not considering in any scenario or option the delivery of the first strike involving strategic nuclear weapons," he told a Thursday briefing in Colorado Springs.

"In theory we do not rule out the use of nuclear arms but only in case no other efforts succeed in averting a threat to the security of Russia, its citizens and allies," Ivanov said.

"We have nuclear forces. Russia will always have them and develop them but we regard them as a political deterrent," he said.

http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?menu=1&id_issue=5663048

[MercutioATC]

1. Anybody notice that we sound like the USSR in the 70's and they

sound like us now? This "destroy them by making them like us" think worked BOTH ways, it seems....

[Old and In the Way]

2. Like our war on Iraq will not stop terrorism or make us more secure

Building more nukes will not make us "safer". Is it so friggen hard for our government to make the "no first strike" pledge?

You're right about the role reversal. The unelected fraud is busy consolidating power and turning us into a One Party state....all you need to do is listen to the brainwashed masses on the right who are using their versionof the "Red Book", now known as the RNC talking points.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

7. funny you say that !!

MY TEACHER WAS RIGHT !!!
My 6th grade teacher taught us that the Soviet Communist State was slowly evolving and becoming more and more like our Capitalist system-and he said that as this happens,
we (the U.S.) will become more and more like the Soviet system(no freedom for the citizens)

he said one day we will reverse roles completely.
And low and behold !!
Look what has happened--

Now the Soviet Union is free--
and us...

will we evolve into a totalitarian state?

[ReadTomPaine]

8. I always thought that Barbara Bush looked like a Babuska.

Gorby and wife were always more dynamic and western looking that Bush Sr. and Babs.

[rooboy]

3. I can't believe we've reached a point...

where people are even DISCUSSING using nukes!!!

[Nottingham]

4. No One plans a first strike except Bush

:bounce:

[0rganism]

5. Not planning a first strike on Who? US? China? Afghanistan? WTF?

:wtf:
I thought we'd all pretty much already reached a gentleman's agreement not to DESTROY THE FUCKING BIOSPHERE, but I clearly overestimated the progress of the last decade. Or perhaps bushco has reduced a dozen years of delicate and sensitive arms treaties to rubble? Either is possible.

[blackcat77]

6. They've ALWAYS said that.

Even at the depths of the cold war. And they used to constantly slam the US for not making the same promise.

Of course that promise and 50 cents'll get you a cup of cheap coffee...

[DuctapeFatwa]

9. And the US still does not make the same claim

There are some people in the US who think it is unlikely that the US would launch a "pre-emptive" nuclear strike, but most folks in the rest of the world are just wondering which country US will nuke first.

[Spazito]

10. Russia doesn't need to use nuclear weapons, they just need to...

change to the euro, which it seems they are going to do.

http://www.money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2003/10/10/cnoil10.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2003/10/10/ixfrontcity.html