MOSCOW — A Russian state with fewer nuclear weapons, laws that are firmly enforced and a working market system: It sounds like the Russia that Western leaders hoped for, vainly, throughout the chaotic years under former President Boris N. Yeltsin.
His successor, Vladimir V. Putin, said Friday that he plans to make it happen. In his first substantial comments concerning policy since being elected Sunday, Putin expressed his determination to rid Russia of excess nuclear weapons while improving the effectiveness of Russia's strategic missiles.
He said he wants to push the stalled Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, START II, through the lower house of parliament, the Duma, where the Communists and leftist forces have lost their majority and the power to block the 1993 agreement.
"We are setting the task to free the world from piles of excessive weapons," Putin said as he visited the closed nuclear city of Snezhinsk, which was known as Chelyabinsk-70 in Soviet times.
Putin's words during his first post-election trip were likely to be welcomed in the West, where his tough preelection rhetoric and his calls to rebuild Russia's military and create a strong state sent out tremors of alarm that he might lead the country down an authoritarian path.
He said Friday that the West had misread his calls for a strong state, explaining that this didn't mean the growth of the armed forces and security services.
"What we are talking about is a strong state where rules are secured by laws and their observation is guaranteed," he said.
In other messages likely to be greeted favorably in the West, Putin repeated his pledge to fight corruption and affirmed his commitment to pro-market economic policies.
With speculation rife in Russia about the makeup of a new government--which will be announced after Putin's inauguration in early May--the president-elect didn't rule out Communists participating, although his requirement that any government member support pro-market policies would appear to effectively exclude them.
Putin has taken a generally low-key approach in the week since his election, and his comments Friday provide the clearest picture yet of a leader likely to meet with Western approval concerning key issues such as pro-market policies and cuts to nuclear weapons. Concerns remain about his commitment to human rights and press freedom.
