Putin: Nixing Start Treaty 'Very Dumb'
CBS News reports:
For months now, some Republicans' hemming and hawing over the nuclear Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia has produced bilateral backlash from current and former politicians.
It is time to add another major name to the list of those warning dire consequences should certain obstinate politicians continue to punt the treaty's ratification: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Calling resistance to the treaty "dumb," Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned Wednesday that his country will find it necessary to build up its nuclear forces if the United States doesn't ratify the new arms reduction treaty, the Associated Press reports.
The treaty, called New START, was worked out this year amid praise that it marked a newly cooperative spirit between Washington and Moscow. Many Republicans in the U.S. Senate, led by senators John Kyl, R-Ariz., and George Voinivich, R-Ohio, however, are expressing reluctance to ratify it.
Mr. Putin warned in an interview with CNN's Larry King that if the U.S. does not ratify the treaty, his country will probably begin deploying more and new nuclear weapons technology.
"We've been simply saying that this is what all of us expects to happen if we don't agree on a joint effort there," said Mr. Putin, adding that it would take "a very dumb nature" for the United States to ignore its own interests -- but if it does, "then we'll have to react somehow."
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