MOSCOW. Jan 11 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian and U.S. presidents' promises on offensive weapons reduction should be "stipulated in precise agreements," former USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev told Interfax on Friday.
"Statements on this issue are not enough," Gorbachev said. "Agreements must stipulate the smallest details of further disarmament, especially mechanisms of destruction of warheads and of mutual control," he said.
"The deadlock should be resolved. Unless the path of eradicating this plague is strictly followed and decisions are stipulated in agreements, no statements and promises will help," he said.
Asked about the U.S. intention to detach and store warheads instead of recycling them, Gorbachev replied that "two political movements are locked in a tough political struggle in the United States."
On the one hand, the September 11 tragedy prompted the U.S. leadership "to see new threats that are not linked to missiles." On the other hand, a part of the U.S. political elite "wants to use the post-September 11 situation as a pretext for building up arms stockpiles. This is madness," he said.