Moscow, 9 March: A senior Russian parliamentary deputy, in a radio interview
aired today, argued that a story in the Los Angeles Times about a supposed White House order to draw up a nuclear attack plan was a Pentagon attempt to
see how Russia would react.
The story was a deliberate leak, indicating "that the Pentagon has decided to check the reaction of the Russian military and Russian politicians", Dmitriy
Rogozin, chairman of the lower house's [State Duma] International Affairs Committee, told Moscow's Ekho Moskvy radio. But "our American colleagues should be careful both with their public statements and with their information leaks", he said.
"Attempts to move nuclear weapons from the political category into the category of weapons that can be used in warfare are dangerous for the United
States itself." "After [the terrorist attacks on the United States on] 11 September, they [the Americans] have somewhat lost touch with the reality in
which they live. And their euphoria after the war in Afghanistan is also deluding them somewhat because the war in Afghanistan is only just beginning."
Nuclear weapons are "decorative weapons" and "cannot in principle be used by
any sane leader of any state", Rogozin said. "No military expert will guarantee that the small-scale use of nuclear weapons will not grow into a large-scale war."
As for Russia, the country "is absolutely securely protected", the deputy said. "Only a lunatic could plan any nuclear intimidation of the Russian Federation or an attack on it."