Moscow — It was near the end of President Vladimir V. Putin's reelection campaign early this year, and two days of high-profile military exercises highlighting his role as Russia's commander in chief had been marred by failed tests of submarine-launched missiles.
But with a few cryptic words, Putin dispelled the gloom. The exercises, he said at a news conference, confirmed that Russia would soon possess intercontinental nuclear weapons capable of maneuvering in flight to evade antimissile defenses.
"No other country in the world has such weapons systems," Putin said. "It means that Russia has been and will remain one of the biggest nuclear missile powers in the world. Some people may like it and some may not, but everyone will have to reckon with it."
The end of the Cold War, improved relations with the U.S. and the personal rapport between Putin and President Bush have all served to make Moscow's military seem far less ominous than in Soviet times. On top of that, Russia's conventional forces have vastly weakened.
The sad state of its regular military has forced Moscow to place fresh emphasis on nuclear weapons in order to protect its interests in Europe and Asia. Washington is building military bases in some former Soviet republics. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has expanded eastward into the former Soviet Baltic republics. Washington has continued to develop missile defenses.
The world may now have only one superpower, but the United States and Russia still could destroy each other many times over.
Source of Prestige
"In the current situation the role of nuclear weapons for Russia is hard to overestimate," said retired Gen. Makhmut Gareyev, president of the Academy of Military Sciences in Moscow. "Basically it is the only factor which can still ensure our country's safety. We have nothing else to repel strategic military threats anymore."
Nuclear weapons also ensure prestige for Russia. Some Russian analysts maintain that their country's nuclear arsenal is the only reason it has been given a seat at the table with the world's major industrial powers.
"It shouldn't be forgotten that Russia was invited to the G-8 because it has around 800 strategic missiles," military analyst Victor Litovkin wrote recently in the weekly newspaper Moskovskie Novosti. "Strategic missiles remain the only chance to make the world respect Russia in the near future."
