Havana,
Cuba. - The news from Moscow indicates that US inspectors
have just left Vótkinsk missiles plant. They did it
one day before the 1991 Treaty on Reduction of Strategic Offensive
Weapons (START) expired.
The metal mechanic plant of Vótkinsk is located in
the Republic of Udmurtia. According to US embassy in the Russian
capital, its main productions are new generation intercontinental
ballistic missiles Topol-M, RS-24 missiles with multiple reentry
warheads and naval missiles Bulavá.
The source remarked that US inspectors controlled the production
in that plant for 20 years, pursuant to the START Treaty.
On the other hand, their Russian colleagues controlled production
in the town of Magna, state of Utah, United States, until
missiles production was dismantled in 2001.
It is worth asking: What is this all about? Why so much hassle?
The headlines in Russian and US big media highlight the fact
that both powers hope to finalize a new treaty on nuclear
weapons reduction during the current month.
Russian News Agency Interfax reported that the ratification
of the new treaty will take around one year. A bilateral commission
will work all that time to settle every possible disagreement.
It is stressed that the new pact will have a different and
less expensive verification mechanism, compared to the Treaty
on Reduction of Strategic Weapons (START-1) that expired last
week.
START-1 was signed in 1991 by the former USSR and the United
States. It bound both parties to reduce nuclear warheads down
to 6 000 and 1 600 launching vehicles.
Then, a follow-up agreement was signed in 2002. It is known
as the Moscow Treaty and specified that by December 2012,
warheads should have decreased to a number between 1 700 and
2 200.
Russian president Dmitri Medvedev and his US counterpart,
Barack Obama, already gave their preliminary consent to the
draft new treaty.
Both rulers commended the draft new treaty of weapons control
at a summit held last July in Moscow. The agreement provides
for the reduction of both countries’ nuclear arsenal
to a number between 1 500 and 1 675 operational warheads and
500 and 1 000 launching vehicles.
These figures show how the world is infested with mass annihilation
weapons. However, just a tiny amount of them would be enough
to destroy the whole planet if blasted simultaneously.
Translated by: Pedro
A. Fanego
( 03.12.2009 10:13 AM )
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