http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/Kremlin_expresses_alarm_at_U_S_missile_plans.html?siteSect=143&sid=6709257&cKey=1147357467000Kremlin expresses alarm at U.S. missile plans
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A top Kremlin aide said on Thursday that reported moves by the United States to equip some strategic rockets with non-nuclear warheads were "irresponsible" and "extraordinarily dangerous" for Russia.
Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Sobyanin echoed comments made by President Vladimir Putin in a keynote speech on Wednesday in which the Russian leader expressed disquiet at the Pentagon plans and suggested new disarmament talks.
"Imagine a rocket that can be fired from a submarine. A nuclear state might not be able to react adequately to the firing of such a rocket. There is nothing written on it to say what sort of warhead it is -- whether it is conventional or nuclear," Sobyanin told reporters.
"It seems to me to be an irresponsible decision ... It is extraordinarily dangerous," he said.
Referring directly to a Pentagon initiative to arm some U.S. submarine-launched ballistic missiles with conventional warheads, Putin said talk of an end to the arms race had proved "premature".
The Russians see a US submarine surface and fire its ICBMs. Russia won't know whether they are nuclear or non-nuclear warheads until it is too late for them to react if they hold back and they are nuclear tipped. It may be use them or lose them for the Russian ICBMs? So what does Russia do? Take a wait and see attitude? Or do they let their nuclear tipped ICBMs fly?