Russia will not use nuclear weapons preemptively under any conditions but reserves the right to use conventional military force preventively, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Thursday.Ivanov denied reports from Moscow last week that Russia was asserting the right to launch preemptive nuclear strikes under certain conditions as part of a new national security strategy.
"Russia still regards nuclear weapons as a means of political deterrence. We do not envisage a scenario or a situation where we would use such weapons first," he said through a translator at a press conference here.
But Ivanov, who spoke after discussions with NATO defense ministers here on Russia's military modernization plans, said Russia would not give up the right to use conventional military force preventively against another country.
He said he briefed NATO ministers in detail on the conditions under which Russia might resort to preventive military attacks, noting that Russia regards the former Soviet republics as a "an important and sensitive sphere of security."
The ministers, he said, responded to his presentation with "understanding."
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