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A report published by the State Department on the state of the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the United States caused a mixed reaction in the Russian media. How relevant are the lamentations about the "loss" of Russia and the implication behind them - they say, isn't it time for us to build up muscles?The last two weeks have passed under the sign of almost forgotten Russian-American "horror stories." Statements by the military that Russian ballistic missiles would be able to intercept missile defense systems by 2015, threatening warnings that by 2020 the world would return to a new round of the arms race, a law approved by the lower house of congress limiting the terms of the authority of the President of the United States to implement START-3.
In fact, all these fears are only a rudiment of the psychology of the Cold War, for the eradication of which the "reset" should work. Obviously, over the past two years, Russian-American relations have acquired a new dynamic. This is the desire to give them a serious economic dimension, and dialogue at the level of civil society, and harmonization of actions regarding regional conflicts and policies in the post-Soviet space.
It is clear that in these conditions the hardware and political weight of certain groups is reduced. How to increase it? How to convince the country's leadership that the serious means of the state defense order should go to the usual "nuclear missile" pockets, and not to modern weapons and equipment that will make the army adapted to the challenges of the 21st century? What can you earn more - on a missile or anti-missile system or at a camp for an Arctic brigade convenient for the soldiers? On billions of space programs weapons and a "European" missile defense system that protects against a mythical threat, or on detectors to detect explosives that protect against a real threat?
Obviously, it is more convenient to build fear and distrust of each other. After all, what could be more familiar to the average Russian than the tradition to look at the United States through a gun and a conspiratorial sight? And for the American "hawks" this is a great opportunity to play on topics that Obama who was seeking re-election spent so much time on.
I want to believe that common sense will prevail. A new round of the arms race for humanity as a whole is completely inappropriate; now there are plenty of other global problems. From food shortages to ecology, from infections to radioactive releases. And in order to solve them, one must learn to think in the logic of win-win, and not zero-sum games.
Russia and the United States have been mastering this in the “reset” process for two years now. While it turns out. The main thing is to "not hang".
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