Nuke Experts Agree Putin’s Recent Nuclear Saber-Rattling Lacks Credibility

摘要

Russia is undergoing a full-scale process of rearmament and a costly modernization of strategic and non-strategicrnnuclear weapons programs, lagging behind the pace of U.S. modernization programs, according to a panel ofrnnuclear experts, who in Washington yesterday said the slower pace discredits Putin’s recent nuclear posturing.rnThe experts downplayed Putin’s words as mere political trumpeting of Russia’s status as a legitimate nuclearrnpower. Pavel Baev, research director at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, joined Steven Pifer , Senior Fellowrnand Director of the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative, and Hans Kristensen, Director of the NuclearrnInformation Project at the Federation of American Scientists, for a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution onrnWednesday.