MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/. Moscow needs to prepare for various scenarios in terms of Washington’s potential nuclear buildup, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters.
"We should prepare for various scenarios, including negative ones, with the Americans building up their nuclear capacity," he said.
"We are ready for that because everything Washington does in this field makes it clear that this is exactly the path they (the Americans -TASS) will take. However, no decisions have been made yet and the future of the [US strategic] bombers [B-52] has not been finalized, so we still have time to calculate various options and, then again, as with our response to joint activities by Germany and the US in Europe - on the ground in Europe - to determine the most effective and least expensive response," he added.
Asked if the potential reconversion of B-52H bombers could kill any strategic stability talks between Russia and the US and efforts to develop a document to replace the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), Ryabkov said: "Let’s wait and see how discussions proceed, particularly on this issue."
"I would like to point out that in the past, before we suspended the New START treaty, we had brought up the potential reconversion of the US Air Force’s heavy bombers with regard to New START. At the time, we held quite thorough and professional discussions with US representatives regarding the reconversion of some of the country’s heavy bombers," he noted. "It was on the agenda together with the notorious issue of the Americans leaving strategic delivery vehicles out of calculations. I will not go into detail because the issue lost relevance after we suspended the treaty. However, this particular case makes it clear that there are no restraints left in the US in terms of handling strategic nuclear weapons," Ryabkov emphasized.