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Dmitry Rogozin: If You Want To Use Nuclear Weapons, You Must Be Insane
10 November 2012
Senior Russian officials, speaking at an international conference in Moscow, today, warned against the use of nuclear weapons, and reiterated Moscow’s call for binding guarantees that NATO’s missile defense system will not be aimed at Russia. Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told the conference that Russia is willing to revive negotiations on nuclear arms reduction, but only if a number of other issues are addressed, among which are Russia’s concerns about NATO’s missile defence plans. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin added that Russia wants legally binding guarantees, not pledges, as "the times of Gorbachev have passed." U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul reportedly told the conference, prior to Rogozin’s remarks, that such guarantees are impossible because of the threat from Iran. "We have never violated the terms of export control of fissile materials and nuclear weapons, since we believe that the Nuclear Club should stay as it was once founded," Rogozin said. He stressed that only nations that recognize the catastrophic consequences of a nuclear war could possess these weapons. "Those who are contemplating the implementation of nuclear weapons are insane," he said, underscoring that mass-destruction weapons were too serious a threat to be entrusted to military-obsessed people. "Nuclear weapons are political weapons," he said. Rogozin and Antonov were speaking at the conference on "Nuclear Weapons and International Security in the 21st Century," co-sponsored by the Russian Intdernational Affairs Council, Global Zero and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). Retired Gen. James Cartwright, the former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former commander of U.S. Strategic Command, was to be at the conference as a representative of Global Zero. According to the event’s organizers, the agenda was to include the following four items: * Half a century of nuclear arms control: victories and defeats * Russia-U.S. nuclear cooperation: is there an alternative to nuclear deterrence? * Multilateral nuclear disarmament: utopia or a real perspective? * International cooperation against the threats of nuclear terrorism |