Russian Nuclear Weapons: Past, Present, and Future

Russian foreign policy commentary on Chinese-
Russian relations continues to stress the elements of
partnership comprise the interests of the two states in
multipolarity to counter American hegemony, even as
U.S. policy under Obama has stressed international engagement
and a “reset” with Russia, and even though
neither Moscow nor Beijing desired that the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization (SCO) would become
an anti-Western military alliance. The only negative
point made by Aleksandr Lukin in an assessment of
those bilateral relations was that China would, from
time to time, encourage Russia to take anti-Western
actions that China itself would not do. 8 Two Canadian
scholars in a recent review of Sino-Russian relations
concluded that the “strategic partnership” between
Moscow and Beijing was based on realpolitik focused
on countering U.S. influence and the scholars did not
see any prospect for a deepening relationship in the
short- or mid-term future because of the continuing
distrust between China and Russia. 9 Western observers
have seen more tension between Russia and China
in Central Asia. Jeffrey Mankoff and Leland R. Miller
have written of the bilateral competition between
China and Russia, thereby affording the United States
more room to maneuver politically and economically
in that region. 10
Some Russian authors have raised an alarm over
an emerging security challenge to Russia’s Far East
from a Chinese military that already has the marks of a
military superpower in comparison with Russia’s own
conventional forces. Aleksandr’ Khramchikhin spoke
of a Chinese military that combined mass and modern
technology deployed along Russia’s eastern frontiers
at a time when it was evident that China no longer had
to contemplate using military force to regain Taiwan. 11
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