PRESS RELEASE

9 April 1999

Russian Retargeting of Nuclear Weapons

Today’s rumors of Russian nuclear war preparations from the Kremlin serve as a stark warning. They serve as a timely reminder that 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 Ukraine’s 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 initial reports that Russia is re-targeting its nuclear missiles on NATO 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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