Russian Foreign Ministry threatens U.S. with nuclear strike
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on reports of the rearmament of U.S. Trident-2 submarines with W76-2 missiles with low-yield nuclear warheads (5-6 kilotons). Any missile attack from the U.S. submarines of this class will be met with a nuclear strike by Russia, she said.
"As we have explained many times, we consider such a step dangerous. We believe that it is an element of destabilization. U.S. actions are aimed at obscuring the boundaries between strategic and non-strategic nuclear weapons, which leads to lowering the nuclear threshold. This conclusion was reached not only in Russia, but also by representatives of the academic community around the world, and even in the U.S. Congress," the Russian newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets quoted Zakharova as saying.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke in a similar vein, also noting the danger of the Americans switching to low-power charges. The old-fashioned W76-1 missile, which was in service with of the U.S. Navy, is about 100 kilotons.