Russia Could Quickly Resume Missile Output: General

Source: Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is capable of quickly resuming production of short and medium-range nuclear missiles, the commander of Russia's rocket forces said on Friday.

"If there is a political decision to make such a class of missile, then it is obvious that they will be made in Russia in the near future because we have everything we need," Colonel- General Nikolai Solovtsov was quoted by RIA news agency as saying.

"Today we are in (arms control) agreements so we act strictly within those agreements."

President Vladimir Putin told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this month that Russia would find it difficult to stay in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in December 1987.

That treaty, a milestone in arms control, bound Washington and Moscow to destroy all ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with a range of between 500 and 5,500 km (300 to 3,300 miles). It led to the scrapping of 2,692 missiles in total.



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