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In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin meets with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu at the Kremlin in Moscow on 20 February 2024.
Alexander Kazakov / Pool / AFP
- Russia denies US claims that
it is developing a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon. - President Putin said that
Russia is against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space, urging compliance
with all agreements in this regard. - The US believes Moscow is
developing a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon, but Russia denies such
plans and accuses the White House of trying to scare US lawmakers into
allocating more funds for Ukraine.
President
Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia was against the deployment of
nuclear weapons in space, and his defence minister flatly denied US claims that
Russia was developing a nuclear capability for space.
A
source familiar with the matter told Reuters that Washington believes Moscow is
developing a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon whose detonation could
disrupt everything from military communications to phone-based ride services.
“Our
position is clear and transparent: We have always been categorically against
and are now against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space,” Putin
told Sergei Shoigu, his defence minister.
Putin said:
We urge not only compliance with all agreements that exist in this area, but also offered to strengthen this joint work many times.
He
added that Russia’s activities in space did not differ from those of other
countries, including the United States.
The
clearest public sign that Washington thinks Moscow is working on a space-based
anti-satellite nuclear weapon was a White House spokesperson’s comment on
Thursday that the system being developed would violate the Outer Space Treaty.
The
1967 treaty bars signatories – including Russia and the United States – from
placing “in orbit around the earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or
any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction.”
The
New York Times has reported that the US intelligence was related to Russia’s
attempts to develop a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon.
‘No such projects’
Commenting
on the US allegation, Shoigu said there were no plans of the kind outlined by
the unidentified sources in the United States.
“Firstly,
there are no such projects – nuclear weapons in space. Secondly, the United
States knows that this does not exist,” Shoigu told Putin.
He
accused the White House of trying to scare US lawmakers into allocating more
funds for Ukraine as part of Washington’s plan to inflict what he said was a
strategic defeat on Russia.
He
said the second reason for the leaked information about the alleged Russian
weapon was to encourage Russia to engage in a dialogue about strategic
stability.
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Russia’s
full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has led to the most serious
confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis,
and the post-Cold War arms control architecture has crumbled.
Putin
said Russia had never been against discussions about strategic stability, but
he said it was impossible to divide what he said was the West’s aim to defeat
Russia and talks about strategic security.
“If
they seek to inflict a strategic defeat on us, then we must think about what
strategic stability means for our country,” Putin said.
“Therefore,
we do not reject anything, we do not give up anything, but we need to figure
out what they want. They usually want to achieve unilateral advantages. That’s
not going to happen.”
Putin
did not rule out talks at defence and foreign ministry level with the United
States on strategic stability.
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