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Defense News: Escalate to de-escalate? US and Russia trade jabs on nuclear arms use
MUNICH — If anyone had any doubt left, a panel discussion today at the Munich Security Conference showcased with brutal clarity that the United States and Russia have very little common ground for a rapprochement on nuclear weapons — or much else, for that matter.
Seated on a podium here at the stately Bayerischer Hof hotel, John Sullivan, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, found himself treading familiar waters with Sergey Kislyak, the former Russian ambassador in Washington and now first deputy chairman of the committee on foreign affairs in the parliament’s upper chamber.
At issue were the morbid intricacies of the circumstances under which each country would unleash atomic arms on the other. Specifically, exactly how close to the brink of destruction by way of a conventional attack must one country be before it would shoot back with nukes.
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WNU Editor: As this discussion revealed .... there is presently no common ground between Russia and the U.S. on nuclear issues. The panel discussion where these issues were brought up can be viewed here .... Panel Discussion "Nuclear Security: Out of (Arms) Control?" (Munich Security Conference).