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Russia ramps up nuclear weapons in Europe

True totals of Russian tactical nuclear weapons is a tightly-held secret, but the Federation of American Scientists estimated last year that Moscow has nearly 5,400 of them, with about 2,000 deployed.

• Russia Moves Tactical Nukes Closer to NATO. Gulp.   Wired.com, By Spencer Ackerman November 30, 2010

While the U.S. and Russia have been publicly crowing about their awesome new friendship for the past two years, Moscow’s been moving small, ground-based nuclear weapons closer to the borders of Washington’s easternmost NATO allies. What’s a little heightened nuclear tension between buddies, right?
As recently as this spring, the Russians have moved their tactical nukes to sites close to their Western frontiers, alarming the Baltic and Eastern European members of NATO, the Wall Street Journal reports. Russia’s longstanding position is that it won’t pull its tactical nuclear weapons behind the Ural Mountains until the U.S. gets its own small nukes out of Europe. True totals of Russian tactical nuclear weapons is a tightly-held secret, but the Federation of American Scientists estimated last year that Moscow has nearly 5,400 of them, with about 2,000 deployed.
The Russian nuke movement isn’t expressly forbidden by prior nuclear treaties; and the Journal notes that it “appeared to coincide” with the arrival of NATO missile defense systems near Russia’s European borders. At the NATO summit in Lisbon this month, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev endorsed building a joint NATO-Russia missile defense system over the next ten years — a big NATO priority — but warned that if “universal” missile defense couldn’t be fielded, a “new round of arms race will start.”……

The treaty, known as New START, doesn’t deal with tactical nuclear weapons from either side. Obama administration officials have told reporters on background throughout the year that they intend to hash out a subsequent treaty with Russia to limit so-called “tacs.” (WikiLeaks released a diplomatic this week confirming that the U.S. keeps tactical nuclear weapons in Germany, Turkey, Belgium and Holland.) That sets up a chicken-and-egg problem for Team Obama: it says it can’t talk tacs until New START gets ratified, but the tactical-nuke issue adds another political obstacle for New START in the Senate.

Russia Moves Tactical Nukes Closer to NATO. Gulp. [Updated] | Danger Room | Wired.com

December 2, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons