Russia's President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump are seen during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci/File Photo
Reuters: For Putin, economic and political reality dampen appetite for arms race
MOSCOW (Reuters) - With his ratings down and state funds needed to hedge against new Western sanctions and raise living standards, Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot afford to get sucked into a costly nuclear arms race with the United States.
Alleging Russian violations, Washington said this month it was suspending its obligations under the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) and starting the process of quitting it, untying its hands to develop new missiles.
That raises the prospect of a new arms race between Washington and Moscow, which denies flouting the treaty. Putin responded by saying Russia would mirror the U.S. moves by suspending its own obligations and quitting the pact.
But Putin, who has sometimes used bellicose rhetoric to talk up Russia’s standoff with the West and to rally Russians round the flag, did not up the ante.
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WNU Editor: There is no stomach for a nuclear arms race in both the U.S. and Russia. Unfortunately .... history is filled with examples of situations that no one wants, but it happens anyway.
1 comment:
I think with Trump at the helmet we're in a much better and safer place. And Russia must know by now that the US cold war mentality is dying. No one wants to be enemies for decades and decades if there's no real reason. The problem the west has is only with Putin - absolutely not with Russians. I know many and they're just freaking fun to be around. Plus they're great engineers and throw awesome parties, so wtf would we want to be at war with those guys? :)) putin is on his way out and I don't think he's crazy to invade some eastern block country for a final push to restore "glorious Soviet past" ;-) Hundreds of thousands would die for sure, if not more, depending on country invaded. And no real Russian would really want that either. As long as Germany won't get another Hitler and China stays also a bit down, the world should be fine actually
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