Talking doesn't help: Russia is ready to increase its nuclear and missile arsenals

If the United States continues to develop a missile defense system, Russia can remove the quantitative limitations of its nuclear arsenal. This is stated in the article by the Ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Grigory Mashkov, published in the International Life magazine.

"In the current realities, it is no longer possible to talk about strategic stability in its classic bilateral context if we do not want to drive ourselves into another illusion. There are many players in the international arena who influence the global missile alignment. It is possible that in the current conditions of confrontation with the West with its open policy of inflicting strategic damage on Russia, we may face the question of moving away from the limitations of nuclear and missile arsenals in favor of their quantitative and qualitative increase," the diplomat said.

He explained that the missile arms race is already underway. A large-scale modernization of nuclear arsenals and WMD missile delivery vehicles is underway. The process of militarization of outer space is gaining momentum, which in the near future is likely to turn into another arena of military confrontation. New technologies (artificial intelligence, quantum computers, etc.) are beginning to play an important role here, which can multiply the enemy's potential in strategic areas, including in the field of missile defense.

According to Mashkov, one of the retaliatory steps could be an adjustment of the Russian position on some aspects of the NPT.

"In particular, it would be possible to analyze and revise our approaches to existing developments, for example, to the final document of the 2000 Review Conference. The loss of relevance of the seventh point of its practical steps, which provides for the preservation and strengthening of the ABM Treaty and destroyed by the American administration two years after its adoption, led to the undermining of the comprehensive nature of the entire package," Mashkov said.

"We will have to take a fresh look at all our commitments in the field of strengthening transparency and confidence-building measures, suspend discussions on nuclear risks and threats, which become empty talk amid the growing efforts of Westerners to undermine strategic and non-strategic nuclear deterrent forces (SNF). And, in general, other areas of the KVRN (arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation) should be more closely linked to US claims for global dominance. It is difficult to judge how justified our line of cooperation with the Americans is only in those areas in which they are interested," he concluded.