Russian forces launch strategic military exercises

MOSCOW -- Russia is in the midst of a strategic military exercise motivated in part by Moscow's concerns about U.S. plans to develop new types of nuclear weapons, a top general said Tuesday.

The exercise, which began in late January on the headquarters level, will later involve the launch of several ballistic missiles and flights by strategic bombers, said Col. Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces.

Baluyevsky dismissed media reports that the exercise closely resembles Soviet-era simulations of an all-out nuclear war with the United States, saying that it's not directed against any specific country.

"The enemy is imaginary," Baluyevsky said at a news conference. "There is no hint whatsoever that the enemy is the United States, or any other country."

At the same time Baluyevsky said the exercise reflects Russia's concern about the development of low-yield nuclear weapons in the United States, which he described as destabilizing.

"Shouldn't we react to that?" he said. "I'm sure that we should and we are doing that."

He said the maneuvers will also help Russia develop the means to penetrate missile defenses, another priority of the U.S. military.

Moscow informed the U.S. government in advance of the exercise, in keeping with its arms control treaty obligations, Baluyevsky said. He added that Russia wasn't trying to scare anyone.

"It's not saber-rattling. It's not aimed at scaring our strategic partners, the United States and NATO," Baluyevsky said. "We are doing what the military is intended for: getting ready for solving tasks in any possible conflict."

He dismissed media reports that Russian strategic bombers would test-fire missiles over the north Atlantic as part of the exercise, but refused to disclose their flight routes.

During the Cold War, Soviet bombers routinely flew over the northern Atlantic on training missions that imitated a nuclear attack on the United States. Russia last sent its bombers there in 1999, after its relations with the United States had worsened sharply over the NATO air campaign against the former Yugoslavia.

U.S.-Russian ties improved with President Vladimir Putin's support for Washington after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, but have since soured over Moscow's opposition to the war in Iraq and U.S. concerns about Kremlin backsliding on democracy.

A defense bill signed by President Bush in November lifts a decade-old ban on research into low-yield nuclear weapons. The so-called "mininukes" would have an explosive effect smaller than five kilotons, about a third the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Advocates of the low-yield weapons say they could limit the number of civilian deaths if nuclear weapons were used. Opponents say they would blur the distinction between nuclear and conventional weapons and increase the likelihood that nuclear weapons might be used.

Baluyevsky dismissed media claims that the exercise was a political show aimed at bolstering President Vladimir Putin's popularity in the run-up to the March 14 presidential election, which he is expected to win easily.

"This is neither the opening of the election campaign nor a demonstration of our nuclear fist to the entire world," Baluyevsky said.