MOSCOW. April 6 (Interfax) - Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachyov sees the shape of the new nuclear strategy, outlined by U.S. President Barack Obama, with a positive light and with reservations that the White House will make its position clearer on three important problems in this and other documents.
"This document, the new American nuclear strategy, has not been published yet and we have had no chance to study it in detail," Kosachyov, the chairman of the State Duma's International Affairs Committee, told Interfax. "But at a glance, taking into account what President Obama has said, I have a positive opinion of this document, and see it as the first serious step toward the Russian concept with how it sees the problem of ensuring global security," Kosachyov told Interfax on Tuesday.
"All understatements and unclear moments will hopefully be lifted when the treaty is signed in Prague on April 8, so the treaty will indeed mirror the Russian and American positions on this issue, instead of being a formal diplomatic document," he said.
There are three issues on which the White House could state its position more clearly, Kosachyov said.
The Russian leadership recently proposed that nuclear potentials remain based only in their home countries, he said. "Russia has no nuclear weapons deployed outside its borders. By contrast, American tactical nuclear weapons are stationed in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and, if I am not mistaken, Turkey," Kosachyov said.
The second problem is the two leading nuclear powers' commitment not to deploy nuclear weapons in space, he said. "According to information available to me, the U.S. has not been deploying nuclear weapons to be placed in outer space thus far. But since this is technically feasible, the possibility cannot be excluded completely. Therefore, we would like to receive guarantees from the White House that this will never happen," Kosachyov said.
And thirdly, "Russia has long ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, while the U.S. yet to do this," he said.