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Keeping his temper boiling at "furious" over the United States' criticism of Russia's war in Chechnya, Russian President Boris Yeltsin has placed his most deadly intercontinental nuclear missiles (ICBM) on "combat alert."
The London Express' Moscow bureau is reporting that, on Yeltsins's orders, 10 of Russia's newest, most sophisticated weapons — capable of striking the United States — have been deployed in full readiness.
This unprecedented dramatic warning has Western observers nervous about the possibility of an inadvertent launch at a time when it is known that Russia's missiles are not fully reprogrammed to avert all millennium-year computer failures.
Russia just recently sent computer and missile experts to Washington to work with American specialists in averting many Y2K glitches. Though the missile system itself may not be affected by the Y2K bug, which is uncertain, and doubted at this point, the outside systems the missiles would rely upon would not be Y2K-compliant.
Yelstin's hawkish missile deployment is just the latest move of a laundry list of recent military developments in Russia.
In October, Yeltsin's Prime Minister announced Russian government plans for a massive military build-up, with plans to raise the military budget by 50 percent.
Last month, the Russian Navy fired two ICBMs from a submarine. They struck a target range more than 3,000 miles away on Russia's Kamchatka peninsula. Since the Kosovo war, Russian military and civilian leaders have made clear that their war game exercises are preparation for a conflict with the United States.
Toronto's Globe and Mail reported the most recent missile test firing was the first time Russia has launched an ICBM from a nuclear submarine in four years. It was the third time in a month it had fired off missiles.
The paper called it "an intimidating wave of test launches."
Yeltsin's deployment for combat of the missiles — the
Topol-Ms - is the most serious military development yet. With a striking range of 6,200 miles, the
Topol-Ms — are based in the Saratov region, 400 miles southeast of Moscow.
Although the West was advised in advance, as required by nuclear treaty commitments, the rarity of this move can be regarded only as a deliberate and serious show of force to underscore Yeltsin's outrage.
It coincided with his return to Russia after a trip to China, where he warned Clinton and other Western leaders to stay out of Russia's business in Chechnya.
Yeltsin brandished Russia's still great missile threat by thundering, "Russia is a great power that possesses a full nuclear arsenal. It is we who will dictate."
Recently, Gen. Vladimir
Yakovlev, the Russian missiles-forces commander, also bragged, "Of the five nuclear powers, none of the others will match these weapons in the next few years.
"Topol-M is able to breach any anti-missile system that exists in the world and any which will be built in the near future."
Also troubled by the missile alert are Russian politicians and analysts who regard Yeltsin as too ill to have his finger on the trigger of the world's second largest nuclear power.
Britain's leading independent nuclear expert, John Large, said, "There was an unwritten agreement for both Russia and the U.S. not to deploy nuclear weapons before the Y2K period.
"Even if the weapons themselves are OK — which I very much doubt since their testing system has been effectively down and out for three years — they would have to work within the strategic defense system there, which is full of Y2K glitches.
"There is no real need for it — it is a risk they don't need to take.
"I am not suggesting that these nuclear bombs will go off on their own, but we do expect to see the defense systems playing up a bit." Large
said.
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"Russian
Sabers Rattle for Y2K"
