Russia Stands by Nuclear Weapons

SAROV, February 24 (RIA Novosti)

Russia will not give up its nuclear weapons until it develops conventional weapons with comparable effect, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

He admitted that Russia’s foreign partners “are ahead of us in some respects, especially precision-guided weapons.”

Modern conventional warheads feature yields, accuracy and delivery time that “make them comparable in their effects to weapons of mass destruction,” Putin said.

“We will only abandon nuclear weapons when we have such systems, and not a day earlier,” he said.

“No one should have any illusions about that.”