MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia needs nuclear weapons to guarantee national security, State Duma deputy, former Russian Security Council Secretary, Academician Andrei Kokoshin told Interfax-AVN in connection with the 55th anniversary of the RDS-37 thermonuclear bomb.
"There will be no alternative to nuclear deterrence even in the distant future. Nuclear deterrence is ensured by three components of the Russian strategic nuclear forces, which are based on land, sea and air and supplement each other, as well as by tactical and operative-tactical weapons," he said.
"In our armed forces, nuclear deterrence must be supplemented with high-tech conventional weapons," he said. "There is a need for comprehensive development of general forces."
"Nuclear deterrence systems and forces will remain a cornerstone of our security in the foreseeable future," Kokoshin said.