Russia won’t agree to negotiate tactical nukes with U.S. – expert

(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 19, 2013) Russia will not agree to negotiations with the U.S. on reducing tactical nuclear weapons, Sergei Rogov, the director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of U.S. and Canada Studies, said at a press conference in Moscow on Wednesday.

“I believe Russia will not agree to negotiations on tactical nuclear weapons for a number of reasons. One of them is NATO’s superiority in conventional weapons, especially precision ones,” Rogov said.

Negotiations on the issue are possible but would be extremely difficult, he said.

“A search for a solution is possible, but I think it would be impossible to find it quickly. In any case, in order to talk about tactical nuclear weapons, it is necessary to resolve the missile defense problem and reach an agreement on precision conventional weapons,” he said.

This is the only condition on which Russia could agree to negotiate tactical nuclear weapons, he said.