OPINION: Russia to Benefit From US Suspension of Nuclear Cooperation Program

[FarCenter]

MOSCOW, April 8 (RIA Novosti) – Washington’s decision to end cooperation with Moscow on dismantling weapons of mass destruction due to the crisis in Ukraine will free up Russia for a military partnership with China, a Russian defense expert has said.

“I think that if the US halts cooperation, Russia may create a new military bloc with China. It will be a serious alliance that will rival NATO,” said Anatoly Tsyganok of Moscow State University, noting that Beijing preferred not to rush things at the moment.

The United States announced Tuesday it was going to phase out a decades-long joint effort with Russia to dismantle weapons of mass destruction in former Soviet republics, called the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.

The CTR agreement, also known as the Nunn-Lugar program, dates back to the early 1990s and led to the decommissioning of scores of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Tsyganok, who heads the Military Forecasting Center at Moscow State University, believes the United States is desperately afraid of Russian-Chinese cooperation on military and technical matters.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140408/189111231/OPINION-Russia-to-Benefit-From-US-Suspension-of-Nuclear.html

[Purveyor]

1. kick. Thanks for posting. +1 eom