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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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22Jan14
Putin sees nuclear disarmament as matter of distant future
The humankind is far from making a decision to abandon nuclear weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.
"I personally believe that someday the mankind will have to refuse from nuclear weapons, but this will be a long time before that happens," Putin told students at Moscow's MEPHI University which prepares professionals for nuclear energy industry.
Putin noted that many countries, including Russia, possess nuclear weapons and none of them is ready to denounce it.
Any unilateral start by Russia of nuclear disarmament presently would be "highly strange," Putin said, adding that such a step could lead to "big and hard consequences" for the country.
Currently, Russia is focusing on modernization of nuclear military technologies, communications, high-precision weapons and the Glonass navigation system, he said.
Last December, the Russian Defense Ministry said Moscow would put more emphasis on developing long-range, high-accuracy weapons in the country's massive defense upgrade. Also, Russia plans to upgrade 85 percent of its strategic nuclear weapons by 2020.
The government has earmarked 20 trillion rubles (about 600 billion U.S. dollars) for the massive rearmament program during that period.
[Source: Xinhua, Moscow, 22Jan14]
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