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NATO
Russian Nuclear Rumors A Stark Warning
8 April 1999
By Martin Butcher
Todays rumors of Russian nuclear war preparations serve as
a stark warning: the war in the Balkans takes place in a world
where thousands of nuclear weapons remain on hair trigger
alert. The US even has nuclear bombs stored at Aviano air
base in Italy, from where air raids on Belgrade are launched.
"Let us hope that Western leaders manage any nuclear confrontation
with Russia better than the Rambouillet talks," said Daniel
Plesch, Director of BASIC.
NATO should seek emergency discussions with Russia aimed
at reducing the readiness to fire Russian and NATO missiles
to days, not minutes, said Senior Fellow Martin Butcher.
Other indicators of the nuclear dimension of this crisis
include the vote by Ukraines parliament to revoke its nuclear
free status and the cancellation of US-Russia nuclear Y2K
talks, said Stephen Young, Senior Analyst.
Russian officials are now reported saying that initial reports
that Russia is re-targeting its nuclear missiles on NATO countries
are a misinterpretation and that Yeltsin was referring to
a possible future Russian re-targeting should the crisis worsen.
However, the UK government has sought clarification of the
situation directly from Moscow and received no response as
yet.
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