International

U.S. `plan' against Russia may affect talks

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW MARCH 10. A reported U.S. plan to use nuclear arms against Russia and other countries is likely to throw in new spikes in the knotty Russian-U.S. talks on drastic reduction of nuclear weapons. The plan was leaked to a U.S. newspaper three days before the Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Ivanov, goes to the U.S. for crucial talks on strategic stability.

He is expected to question the American leaders on the report in the Los Angeles Times on Friday that the White House had asked the Pentagon to draw up contingency plans for using nuclear weapons against China, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Russia and Syria.

The report was met with anger and dismay in Russia. "This is a policy of the big stick, a nuclear stick intended to intimidate us and put us in our place,'' said Dmitry Rogozin, Chairman, Foreign Affairs Committee of the State Duma, Lower House of the Russian Parliament. ``The heart of the U.S. political doctrine is to weaken or push powerful Russia off the political scene,'' Gen. Ivashov said. The U.S. plan to make nukes an operational weapon, rather than a deterrent, is bound to stiffen Moscow's opposition to Washington's proposal to store rather than destroy, nuclear warheads to be dismantled under a new strategic arms reduction treaty the two sides are negotiating for the scheduled bilateral summit in Moscow in May.

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