Paul Goble
Staunton,
October 2 – Pavel Felgengauer, an independent Russian military analyst, says
that even though Moscow will not confirm or deny the presence of nuclear
weapons in occupied Crimea, there can be no doubt that the Russians have placed
them there because of the presence of nuclear-capable delivery systems.
He
tells Ukraine’s Gordon news agency that most of them are probably still in
storage bunkers but some of them may already be installed in launch vehicles
for possible use (gordonua.com/news/crimea/felgengauer-rossiya-ne-budet-podtverzhdat-ili-oprovergat-nalichie-yadernogo-oruzhiya-v-krymu-no-ono-tam-est-mozhno-ne-somnevatsya-395148.html).
The situation today, Felgengauer
continues, is a “pre-war” one if one is speaking “about tactical nuclear arms.
Formally, this is a secret but the carriers are already prepared and special
weapons are located in the warehouses of the 12th main directorate
of the ministry of defense of the Russian Federation.” He adds that in his
view, some are already on Black Sea vessels or at airbases in Crimea.
“For Moscow, Crimea is Russian
territory and therefore it isn’t bothered about agreements on the
non-proliferation of nuclear arms.” The 1991 accord between the USSR and later
Russia, on the one hand, and the US, on the other, “bore only the character of
a gentlemen’s agreement” and is not in fact now being observed.
Russian forces have by various
estimates up to 10,000 tactical nuclear weapons. At least some of them are in Crimea. “No one
should have any doubts about that,” Felgengauer says.
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