MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia will maintain its nuclear potential at a sufficient level in the foreseeable future, should destabilizing factors persist, while serious reductions of nuclear weapons will be possible only after all of the factors impacting national security are analyzed, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
"Larger reductions and restrictions of nuclear weapons will be permitted only after all of the factors influencing strategic stability and effecting Russia's national security interests are assessed thoroughly," Col. Yury Sych, the director of the ministry's 12th Main Department in charge of the Armed Forces' nuclear security, told Interfax-AVN.
"If destabilizing factors continue, Russia will maintain its nuclear potential at a sufficient qualitative and quantitative level for the sake of its security in the foreseeable future," he said.
"Russia is committed to its obligations in line with Article 6 of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and supports a further step-by-step nuclear disarmament process in the world and its ultimate goal to completely liquidate nuclear weapons observing the principle of equal security for all countries," the ministry official said.
Russia's tactical nuclear weapons have been guarded as reliably as the country's strategic weapons, Sych said.
"The set requirements and the equipment of storage facilities both for tactical nuclear ammunition and strategic nuclear weapons are reliable to an equal extent. We treat them the same," he said.