U.S. President’s Special Representative for Arms Control Marshall Billingsley believes that Russia’s nuclear doctrine is supposedly provocative and provides for the use of such weapons
The U.S. administration believes that no future U.S. leader should confirm the statement about inadmissibility of nuclear war with Russia. This opinion was expressed by the President’s Special Representative for Arms Control, Marshall Billingsley.
According to Billingsley, Russia’s nuclear doctrine is supposedly provocative in nature and provides for the use of such weapons. “I sat at the negotiating table with representatives of the Russian General Staff several times, and their opinion on this issue has significantly deteriorated. During the last discussion they noted that the laws of the military conflict, especially the concept of proportionality, do not concern nuclear weapons,” the text of his speech distributed on Tuesday at the National Institute of Public Policy said. – We are very concerned about this.
The spokesman argued that Russia’s military plans for invading NATO territory include striking and surrendering the alliance without retaliation. “But we warned that any use of nuclear weapons – with an intercontinental ballistic missile or artillery – would have strategic implications,” he added.
“On that basis, and because of the Poseidon and Petrel projects, which are not affected by any nuclear deterrence framework, we refused to confirm the joint statement by Mikhail Gorbachev [and U.S. President Ronald Reagan of 1985] that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it should never be fought”, – Billingsley said. – “The Russian side has repeatedly asked us to do so [in a bilateral format], as well as within the framework of the Nuclear Five countries. No future president [of the United States] should sign this. And if he does, he should be punished”.
The Russian side has repeatedly noted that the U.S. actions to modernize weapons reduce the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. For example, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the U.S. seeks to give its nuclear forces new capabilities, thereby increasing the probability of their use.
On June 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the bases of state policy of the Russian Federation in the sphere of nuclear deterrence. The signed document replaces the similar one adopted 10 years ago and valid till 2020. The new normative act confirms that Moscow’s policy in this sphere is defensive, one of the main principles is compliance with international arms control obligations.