Russian Nuclear Weapons: Past, Present, and Future

with nuclear weapons alone. General Makmut Gareev,
generally considered one of Russia’s leading military
thinkers provided the following observation:
But it is impossible to ensure a reliable defense with
nuclear weapons alone. First, many countries have
even now the ability (to be increased in the future) of
developing a surprise attack not only with nuclear, but
also with conventional precision weapons, in order to
destroy the nuclear bases of other countries, depriving
them of the ability to retaliate or carry out nuclear
retribution. 11
Regardless of how desperate the Kremlin was for
new conventional-type weapons, the 1990s would
continue to be a disaster for the Russian military for
both conventional and nuclear weapons. To quote
Rose Gottemoeller: “The debate over the role of nuclear
weapons in Russian national security has been at
the center of military reform, with the key questions
very much in play.” 12
YELTSIN IGNORES THE MILITARY
Gottemoeller was right. The problem, however,
was that Boris Yeltsin did not take military reform,
whether on the nuclear or conventional level seriously.
He did not consider the West to be a threat,
and thus, unlike his generals, was more concerned
with his domestic power or the economy than he was
with upgrading and reforming the military. In fact, he
ignored the military and regularly provided it with
far less than even a subsistence budget—the military
might only get 40-50 percent of what it was authorized
because the tax collection system in Russia was broken.
It led to situations where soldiers were sent out to
pick mushrooms to supplement their diet. 13
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