Russian Nuclear Weapons: Past, Present, and Future

sia is a great nuclear power. No one disputes or doubts
this. And the United States and Russia definitely have
a shared interest in ensuring security on this planet. 46
The Putin government offered full support to the
Strategic Nuclear Forces and parts of the military-industrial
complex (MIC) responsible for the development,
maintenance and modernization of the country’s
missile-nuclear shield. In a typical statement
dated June 9, 2006, at an important meeting with heads
of enterprises belonging to MIC, the second Russian
President declared:
Our country’s nuclear potential is of vital importance
for our national security interests. The reliability of our
‘nuclear shield’ and the state of our nuclear weapons
complex are a crucial component of Russia’s world
power status. I do stress that our work to develop our
nuclear arsenal must go hand in hand with the most
stringent demands on reliability and security of operation
and, of course, with strict compliance with all
non-proliferation regimes. In this respect Russia’s position
is firm and unchanging. 47
The idea of using nuclear weapons in limited war
was also gaining momentum under Vladimir Putin’s
presidency. Senior Russian generals started talking
about using them in exercises and in limited war already
in the late-1990s. 48 The new version of the RF
Military Doctrine of April 21, 2000, developed under
Boris Yeltsin but signed by Vladimir Putin in his capacity
of Interim President, elaborated the provisions
pertaining to the limited use of nuclear weapons that
were set out four months earlier in the “National Security
Concept” and in this regard marked a qualitatively
new stage in the development of Russian nuclear
doctrine. 49 In particular, it stated:
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