Russia seeks clarity on Trump’s nuclear deal

By Zaki Shaikh

LONDON

Russian experts are reflecting their reservations over the deal to reduce nuclear arms offered by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday.

Rather than taking a conditional approach, Trump should take to pursue such a proposal with not confusion, Regnum news agency reported Wednesday, quoting Vladimir Jabbarov, Deputy Chairman of Russian Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.

Commenting on Trump’s offer about the possible lifting of sanctions against Russia in exchange for a reduction of nuclear weapons, Jabbarov said: "I would not link the lifting of sanctions with any other measures. It was the decision of the West and the U.S. and it is up to them to annul or remove the sanction.”

Other experts too are pressing the incoming U.S. president for a formal, comprehensive and clear-cut approach regarding the proposed deal.

Vladimir Kozin, advisor to the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, emphasized approaching this matter more formally, pointing out that for responding to the proposal of the U.S. President-elect on the reduction of nuclear weapons, it is necessary to clearly understand what the U.S. exactly means by those reductions.

So far a suggestion has been made just in a newspaper interview. “As a rule, such proposals ought to be received through official diplomatic channels, and need to spell out precise details of a possible agreement, and hence a statement in the media can be considered only an opinion”.

Kozin added that while Trump’s linking of lifting economic sanctions and reduction of nuclear weapons required a detailed review, in its present form it was without detailed considerations of many crucial components and poorly related to today's realities.

He alleged that the U.S. and European sanctions were imposed on Russia based on far-fetched reasoning. In Kozin’s words, it will not be logical and contrary to common sense that if Western countries abolish their sanctions, Moscow, in turn, reduces the size of its nuclear weapons at the expense of its own safety.

“Reduction in nuclear weapons must happen reciprocally with compatible systems that ensure the strategic stability and strategic parity between the great nuclear powers: extending to missile defense, tactical nuclear weapons, conventional weapons arms and militarization of outer space. All of this can be discussed, on the condition that this dialogue will take place on equality and reciprocal security measures”, the RISS website reported Tuesday.