Of course Russia is a threat to the world!
○ Putin Is More Dangerous Than ISIS and 1,000 Al Qaedas
Obama and his NSC team have already exposed Russia as an agressor, violating present treaties – U.S. Raises Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) concerns with Russia
Testimony: The INF Treaty, Russian Compliance and the U.S. Policy Response
Russia has also tied INF Treaty compliance to other issues. In 2007, Chief of the General Staff Yuri Baluyevsky said that Russia’s decision regarding withdrawal from the treaty would depend on U.S. actions regarding missile defense in Europe. Recent Russian statements have been more moderate, with a focus on extending the treaty to other states. In May 2012, Chief of the General Staff Nikolai Makarov ruled out withdrawal.
The issue of third-country INF missiles has clearly been a far greater concern for Russia than for the United States. The reason is straightforward. Ten countries deployed or were developing ballistic or cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5500 kilometers as of 2012: China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Syria. None of these countries currently has an intermediate-range ballistic or cruise missile that could reach the United States. Many of these countries, however, possess or are developing intermediate-range missiles that can reach Russian territory.
Russia Disputes U.S. Allegations of Arms-Control Pact Violation | July 30, 2014 |
(NTI) – Meanwhile, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki sought to use the political furor kicked up over the INF treaty to urge the speedy confirmation of a longtime department official to a position where he would be overseeing treaty verification and compliance.
- ○ Pressuring Russia with missile defences is a strategic misfire
○ US test-fires Aegis missile defence system destined for Romania and Poland – May 2014
○ ‘Lies, hypocrisy, propaganda’: Russia slams US over claims of nuclear treaty violations |RT on Aug, 2, 2014 |
○ White House Accuses Russia of Violating Nuclear Weapons Pact | Sept. 2014 |
Russia’s Nuclear Revival and Its Challenges
Cont’d below the fold …
Russia’s Nuclear Revival and Its Challenges
By Richard Weitz | Center for Political-Military Analysis | Aug. 22, 2014 |In determining their nuclear arsenal, Russian policy makers employ an expansive force-sizing principle, in which Russian nuclear forces must be able to counter the combined arsenal of all other nuclear weapons states.
…
The ICBMs of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) have historically represented the mainstay of the country’s strategic deterrent. Russia’s more than three hundred ICBMs can carry approximately 1,000 warheads. Since Russia’s operational ICBMs are on average 30-40 years old, many have reached the end of their service lives and are being decommissioned. Moscow is currently in the process of retiring all of its Soviet-era ICBMs (the SS-18, the SS-19, and the single warhead SS-25) and replacing them with systems built and increasingly designed in the years following the Cold War, such as the Topol-M (SS-27) and the multi-warhead RS-24 Yars.At present, the SMF fleet is split roughly equally between the two generations, but in another decade all of Russia’s strategic missiles will be post-Soviet. Russia is expected to begin production soon of a new 100-ton ICBM, known as Sarmat, to replace the SS-18. Like the SS-18, the Sarmat will be a heavy ICBM using liquid fuel, based in hardened fixed silos, and capable of carrying ten MIRVs.
The future of Russia’s sea-based nuclear deterrent rests with the fourth-generation Project Mk 955 Borey II – class nuclear-powered SSBN and its new RSM-56 Bulava SLBM, a combination designed as the foundation of Russia’s maritime nuclear triad through at least the 2040s. The first two Borey-class SSBNs, the Yuri Dolgoruky and the Aleksandr Nevsky, joined the fleet last year. However, their entry, and those of the other six planned Bereys, has been repeatedly delayed due to problems with the Bulava missile.
