Russia And Weapons Of Mass Destruction
According to the Federation of American Scientists, a renowned organization for assessing nuclear weapon stockpiles, Russia possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction in the world. The organization also claims that Russia has 4,650 active nuclear warheads, while the U.S. has 2,468. Other sources however say that the U.S. has more nuclear warheads and the actual numbers remain a subject of estimations and ongoing constant discussion depending on their respective source. In addition to nuclear weapons, Russia declared an arsenal of 39,967 tons of chemical weapons in 1997, of which 57% have been destroyed. The Soviet Union ratified the Geneva Protocol on January 22, 1975 with reservations. The reservations were later dropped on January 18, 2001. Russia is also party to the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Read more about Russia And Weapons Of Mass Destruction: Biological Weapons, Chemical Weapons
Famous quotes containing the words russia and, russia, mass and/or destruction:
“Today’s difference between Russia and the United States is that in Russia everybody takes everybody else for a spy, and in the United States everybody takes everybody else for a criminal.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“To believe that Russia has got rid of the evils of capitalism takes a special kind of mind. It is the same kind of mind that believes that a Holy Roller has got rid of sin.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“When over Catholics the ocean rolls,
They must wait several weeks before a mass
Takes off one peck of purgatorial coals,
Because, till people know what’s come to pass,
They won’t lay out their money on the dead—
It costs three francs for every mass that’s said.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“The true gardener then brushes over the ground with slow and gentle hand, to liberate a space for breath round some favourite; but he is not thinking about destruction except incidentally. It is only the amateur like myself who becomes obsessed and rejoices with a sadistic pleasure in weeds that are big and bad enough to pull, and at last, almost forgetting the flowers altogether, turns into a Reformer.”
—Freya Stark (1893–1993)