MOSCOW. April 26 (Interfax) - Russia considers the new U.S. nuclear doctrine a 'step forward," a Russian deputy foreign minister said.
"From the point of view of so-called 'negative' guarantees of security for non-nuclear powers and, accordingly, from the point of view of raising the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, the revised U.S. nuclear doctrine takes a step forward," Sergei Ryabkov told Moscow's Ekho Moskvy radio.
"As part of the general ideology announced by the current administration in the sphere of armaments control and disarmament, there is a certain reduction in or limits on the number of scenarios that make it possible for the U.S. military and political leadership to consider nuclear options, options for the use of nuclear weapons," Ryabkov said.
"The Russian military doctrine also represents certain steps to strengthen 'negative' guarantees of security of this kind and raise the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons," he said.
"The Russian military doctrine contains a point to the effect that nuclear weapons may only be used in response to the use of weapons of mass destruction against the Russian Federation or in response to an aggression with the use of conventional armaments where the very existence of our state is under threat," Ryabkov said.
"So each of us, Russia and the United States, is following its own route, but in principle we are following parallel routes. And this is, in my view, a very serious confirmation that the two largest nuclear powers take a responsible attitude to the maintenance of international piece, stability and security, and it reflects a very responsible attitude to the fulfillment of our commitments, including under some of the articles of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," he said.