No targets for Russian missiles, says commander

Text of report by Russia TV on 17th December

[Presenter] The Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Troops, Vladimir Yakovlev, has given our correspondent an exclusive interview in which he spoke about the targeting of Russian strategic missiles.

[Yakovlev] At the present time, all missile complexes controlled by the Strategic Missile Troops maintain their combat vigil with zero flight objectives.

I can report to you with full confidence that they are no longer targeted on any point of the Earth's surface.

Yes, these are unilateral initiatives on the part of the Russian Federation which were proposed by Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.

These initiatives are to be viewed in the context of the accords on the limitation of strategic offensive armaments, START-2, the Helsinki agreements and, in due course, START-3, which is being worked on now.

[Correspondent] Will those missiles which are being stood down, so to speak, be used in some way?

[Yakovlev] Naturally, it would be better to use them for the launch of satellites. Our economists have calculated, for example, that it will cost us about 71bn [currency not specified] merely to scrap the missiles.

By using combat missiles to launch space satellites, we could earn about 7,300bn [currency not specified] in profit.

Source: Russia TV channel, Moscow, in Russian 0800 gmt 17 Dec 97

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