Russian Nuclear Weapons: Past, Present, and Future

In responding to a question from Putin on the number
of nuclear submarines currently deployed worldwide,
Ivanov stated: ‘At this moment. . .we have eight nuclear
submarines deployed. Of them, five are strategic
submarines and three are multipurpose submarines,
but all of them are deployed with nuclear weapons.
The ships have different missions – intercontinental,
that is, and multipurpose, but on board of each of them
are nuclear weapons.’ Since general purpose (attack)
submarines do not carry SLBMs, Ivanov’s comments
appeared to indicate that these vessels, which prior to
the Presidential Nuclear Initiatives had carried tactical,
nuclear-armed cruise missiles and nuclear-armed
torpedoes, were again carrying weapons in either or
both of these categories. 107
The worst aspect of these deployments and plans
as stated here is that they point to the General Staff’s
and the government’s strategy as being one of supposedly
limited nuclear war. Key officials confirmed
this interpretation, conceding that limited nuclear war
is Russia’s officially acknowledged strategy against
many different kinds of contingencies. 108 Ilya Kedrov,
in his discussion of armored vehicles above, also
showed that he understood the doctrine as affirming
this strategy. 109 In September 2008, at a roundtable on
nuclear deterrence, General Solovtsov noted that Russia
was giving explicit consideration to the concept of
“special actions” or “deterring actions of the RVSN
aimed at the prevention of escalation of a non-nuclear
military conflict of high intensity against Russia.” Solovtsov
further stated that:
These actions may be taken with a view to convincingly
demonstrating to the aggressor [the] high combat
potential of Russian nuclear missile weapons, [the]
determination of the military-political leadership of
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