Putin offers nuclear arsenal cuts
President Vladimir Putin said today he was willing to cut Russia’s nuclear arsenal to under 1,500 warheads as long as the process was ’’controlled’’ and the 1972 ABM treaty was preserved.
Speaking at a Kremlin news conference alongside French President Jacques Chirac, Putin also criticised the decision to deliver former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to the UN war crimes tribunal, saying he had doubts the move would bring stability to the Balkans.
Missile defence, nuclear proliferation and the tense situation in the Balkans have emerged as key topics so far during Chirac’s three day visit to Russia that began on Sunday.
The two leaders issued a statement on international strategic issues on Monday in which both France and Russia affirmed support for maintaining the ABM treaty, which the United States has argued is outdated and stands in the way of President Bush’s proposals for a missile defence system.
’’Russia welcomes the readiness of the United States to reduce strategic offensive weapons,’’ Putin said. ‘‘Our concrete proposal is that we are ready for a further controlled reduction to 1,500 warheads and even less, but I want to stress controlled.’’
Putin also said any Russian reductions would be ‘‘closely linked to maintaining the ABM treaty.’’ Russia believes abandoning the treaty would destroy the international security balance, a position supported by France.
’’We attach great importance to our statement of strategic stability,’’ Putin, the dominant speaker at the news conference, said.
The three-page statement said Russia and France see it as their task to ensure the strategic balance in the post-Cold War world. ‘‘The mechanism for that exist at the present time,’’ the statement said, in a reference to the ABM treaty.
Although modifications to the ABM treaty concern specifically the United States and Russia, the statement says an international conference on nuclear proliferation would be useful. Russia and France believe destruction of the ABM treaty could lead to a new arms race.
Turning to Yugoslavia, Chirac said he and Putin had not yet discussed Milosevic’s hand over, but that he welcomed the move as a ‘‘victory of law over violence, of democracy over tyranny.’’
Speaking directly after Chirac, Putin sharply disagreed, saying he doubted the move would contribute to a more stable, peaceful society in Yugoslavia, that it had weakened Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and could cause further disintegration of the Yugoslav Federation.
On Chechnya, Putin could rest easy in Chirac’s remarks, in which the French leader simply repeated his country’s position that only a negotiated settlement could lead to a lasting peace.
France had been one of the fiercest critics of Russia’s war against Chechen separatists, which led to a certain cooling in relations.
However, the French authorities in recent months have considerably eased their stance on Chechnya.
’’We are glad that relations are on the rise,’’ Putin said before the two started talks in the Kremlin .
