We live in a time when the right to peace has to be defended with a cudgel in hand. You don’t have to wave it and you definitely shouldn’t hit anyone with it, but it’s definitely worth showing. This is what is called containment, which, as in the case of Zircon, is sometimes perceived abroad as aggression.
The US President Donald Trump hopes to reach an agreement with Russia on nuclear weapons in the time remaining before the presidential election, writes the Axios portal. The Trump administration believes it has a principled agreement approved by the Russian side, a source told the publication.
The interlocutor of the agency noted that it will be officially signed within a week, as soon as bilateral negotiations resume.
Captain of the 1st rank of the reserve, deputy president of RARAN for information policy, Konstantin Sivkov, expressed the opinion that the American side would try to push through the terms of the deal favorable for the United States.
“The deal can consist of one thing: the Americans, Trump will try to remove the most dangerous weapons for the United States. This will imply that Russia will have to agree to the elimination of systems such as Avangard. Perhaps Trump will demand the elimination of the Poseidon system. It cannot be ruled out that Trump will try to include in this deal hypersonic weapons such as Dagger and Zircon systems, against which the Americans have no means of struggle. some American military leaders and politicians have spoken of this. But these systems have nothing to do with the systems of strategic nuclear deterrence, they are far-fetched things. And our side is unlikely to agree to this”, – said Konstantin Sivkov.
Director General of the Center for Political Information Aleksey Mukhin, in turn, noted that the START Treaty could be prolonged, but this requires careful study, and haste is inappropriate here.
“Prolongation is possible – in principle, such an “emergency” option was envisaged by the Russian side. But this kind of thing has been prepared for years, since this agreement is multifaceted, global. For the agreement to work in a normal manner, it must be negotiated literally down to the smallest nuances. And the Russian side spoke about it. Since then, the situation has changed, many countries have had the opportunity to develop their technologies in this direction. At the same time, we are talking about the fact that the United States has a lot of allies who are an additional “appendage” here. The United States claims that it is necessary to conclude a trilateral deal, including China, with which China does not agree. The situation is very difficult. And such capricious behavior of our American partners, who tie up the conclusion of this agreement or its prolongation to some kind of elections, is completely incorrect”, – said Alexey Mukhin on the air of Sputnik radio.
He also noted that an abnormal situation is developing in American politics, when the US president must in every possible way demonstrate a “decisive attitude” towards everything connected with Russia in order to avoid accusations of “collusion”. All this works against the conclusion of an agreement, the political scientist believes.
“We are used to Hollywood films that the American president solves problems by pressing a button or picking up the phone, and now he is forced to act in strange cramped circumstances. These circumstances are very funny on the one hand, on the other hand – terrible. Because we understand that from Russophobia and the degree of its intensity in the US depends on global security. In my opinion, the situation is abnormal”, – concluded Alexey Mukhin.
The next round of Russian-American consultations on strategic stability took place on October 5 in Helsinki. The previous dialogues between the parties, in which Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and US Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingsley took part, took place on August 17-18 in Vienna.