MOSCOW. Nov 3 (Interfax-AVN) - Modernization of Russia's nuclear forces would be a good argument in its dialogue with the U.S., which is claiming world supremacy and which will never view Russia as a country to maintain friendly relations with, said Mikhail Barabanov, the editor-in-chief of the magazine Moscow Defense Brief.
"The role of nuclear deterrence for Russia in its relations with the U.S. is not decreasing but is growing, because misbalance between our countries in all other respects is too obvious," Barabanov told Interfax.
"The U.S. will never view Russia as a friend even in principle, because existence of other powerful countries is in principle unacceptable to America, as the world hegemon, as they limit Washington's claims for world supremacy by the very fact of their existence," he said.
"There are two such countries now, namely Russia and China. Actually this very fact is the main reason for tensions in the U.S.'s relations with Russia and China under any regimes," Barabanov said.
Moreover, "Russia has no reasons to trust the U.S., because America has demonstrated a breathtaking ability to make destructive and irresponsible steps running counter even to its own long-term interests in the past several years," he said.
As examples, the analyst cited the events in Iraq and a discussion in the U.S. regarding the ratification of the New START Treaty, which "the U.S. establishment, especially its Republican part, is conducting at a phenomenally low, irresponsible, and demagogic level," he said.
"This discussion is being held at such an irresponsible level that one could doubt that those responsible for making proper decisions on fundamental issues of war, peace, and security are actually capable of making such decisions, which is evident, in particular, from the events in Iraq," Barabanov said.
Therefore, "modernization of Russia's nuclear forces is the best factor for deterring any possible reckless steps on the U.S. part," he said.
The U.S. enjoys superiority over Russia in terms of nuclear deterrence forces, but Russia should not be concerned too much about this, Barabanov said. "The Americans have more warheads and carriers in general. But, considering the overall level of thousands of warheads, such fluctuations do not matter very much, because the deterrence guarantee remains in place," he said.
Russia should not seek "to catch up with America and overrun it" in the number of strategic submarines, "because Russia is a land power rather than a sea power," Barabanov said.
"Therefore, it makes more sense for Russia to have more ground-based missiles. In fact, this is one of the main things for which the Borei/Bulava program is being criticized: instead of this expensive and protracted development project, it would be simpler and cheaper to make more ground-based Topol-M and Yars missiles," Barabanov said.