Interfax: Moscow concerned by plans to modernize U.S. nuclear weapons in Germany

(Interfax – September 22, 2015)

Moscow is troubled by plans to modernize U.S. nuclear weapons in Germany, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said.

“Such plans on the part of the U.S. cause our concern,” Zakharova said in an interview with Germany’s ZDF television station. The text of the interview was published on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website on Sept.22.

“Let me remind you that in the 1990s, Russia reduced its arsenal of non-strategic nuclear means by four-fold, made them non-deployable and concentrated them in central storage facilities within its national territory,” she said.

“At the same time, deployed tactical nuclear means of the U.S. remain in Europe – not only in Germany, but also in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey. Americans are modernizing their nuclear air bombs, while European members of NATO [are modernizing] airplanes that carry such weapons,” Zakharova said.