Russian Nuclear Weapons: Past, Present, and Future

Neither is this just rhetoric. As one recent assessment
of the obstacles encountered during the negotiations
charged, Washington told Moscow that if it
did not move forward on the treaty, the administration
might take Russia off its priority list and move the
issue from the President to some lower level official.
Whether or not this conversation occurred, it was described
as an ultimatum. This article also points out
that current Russian nuclear programs aim to overcome
or even neutralize U.S. missile defenses. 84
The impression is that the Kremlin no longer believes
in America’s military omnipotence. Russia responded
to the ultimatum with a maiden flight of its
latest T-50 fighter and the rearmament of its antiaircraft
defense system with T-400 Triumph complexes
(this may be referring to what we call the S-400 SAM).
To all appearances, Triumphs are anti-satellite missiles
(ASAT) that are also capable of intercepting and
destroying inbound ballistic warheads. Continuation
of Bulava missile tests was announced as well. Work
on the missile will be brought to its logical end, sooner
or later. Specialists are even working on a concept of
the future strategic bombers that will replace TU-95s
and Tu-160s one day. 85
When it had to back off from this point due to
President Obama’s steadfastness in regard to missile
defenses, Moscow then demanded that the United
States pledge to not do anything unilaterally, evaluate
threats jointly with Russia based on corresponding
reports from experts of both countries within the
framework of the joint threats evaluation mechanism,
and make decisions concerning the deployment of
theater and eventually global missile defenses against
ICBMs exclusively on that basis. Moscow also wants
Washington to confirm that it will discuss missile de-
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