MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax-AVN) - Abandonment of control and verification related to the reduction of strategic offensive weapons is premature, Russian military leaders have said.
Russia and the United States "worked out a thorough mechanism in the sphere of control and verification related to the reduction of strategic offensive weapons. Discarding it now would be wrong," the head of the Defense Ministry's Main Department of International Military Cooperation, Vice Admiral Valentin Kuznetsov, told journalists on Wednesday.
Commenting on the number of warheads sufficient for maintaining stability, Kuznetsov described as "too high" the figure of 2,000 cited by U.S. President George W. Bush. "A question comes up, why so many warheads are needed to maintain national security if the Earth will cease to exist after 500 warheads explode," he noted.
Kuznetsov recalled last year's initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin for "advancing further along the path of nuclear disarmament" and cutting the Russian and U.S. warhead arsenals to 1,500 each or fewer.
This issue involves other aspects, and more work and consultations are needed, he said.