MOSCOW. April 23 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia is capable of getting the necessary serious arguments for negotiations with the United States on the reduction of strategic offensive weapons, Major General Vladimir Dvorkin, head of the Center on Strategic Nuclear Forces under the Russian Academy of Sciences, told a news conference on Tuesday.
The United States proposes to limit the number of nuclear warheads in possession of a party to 2,000 to 2,200 items, and Russia can maintain such a number of warheads at the expense of ground and naval components, Dvorkin said. At the same time the aircraft component which comprises many hundreds of cruise missiles can be stockpiled and kept in reserve, he noted.
"If we proceed from such positions we can gain strong arguments for equal negotiations. If we do not change our plans no matter whether we sign or do not sign the agreement in May mostly based on the U.S. position it will have no influence on our relations or the U.S. position," he stressed.
Sergei Kortunov, vice president of the Foreign Policy Association, said "Russia needs a good treaty at the talks in May." "It is better to have no document at all than to have a bad document. At present I consider our chances to be equal. We have one month before the summit and it is very difficult to reach compromises on all positions. For Russia it is more important to maintain the negotiating process than to sign a declarative document," he said.