ST.PETERSBURG. Jan 20 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia reserves the right to preemptive strikes against terrorists, but has ruled out the use of nuclear weapons for this purpose, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said at a news conference in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
"We reserve this right. A war has been declared on us. In this situation, it would be naive and culpable not to think about how to prevent a terrorist threat in case it is aimed against Russia from the outside," the defense minister said.
"The idea of preemptive strikes is not a Russian invention," he said.
The minister argued that if a state has information that terrorists planning an attack are being harbored in some country, "what are you supposed to do - sit and wait until they come and commit it?"
"As for methods with which this preemptive strike can be delivered, they are not being discussed, except for one thing - of course, nuclear weapons cannot be used," he said.
Following negotiations with French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, Ivanov told journalists, "There is a proverb in the French language - a la guerre comme a la guerre."