A Russian reality check on space weapons

Marching to the beat of a different drummer
Dvorkin, an experienced military strategist who once headed the Defense Ministry’s 4th Scientific Research Institute, is now the chief scientific associate of the Center for International Security, a research center attached to the Institute of Global Economics and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He has been making big waves in recent years with public pronouncements about Russian strategic policies.

Two months ago, when Ivanov threatened to withdraw from a strategic arms control treaty in order to pressure the United States, Dvorkin was dismissive.

“It is difficult to call Sergei Ivanov's proposal to withdraw from the INF Treaty anything other than inept diplomacy,“ he told journalists. A month later, he came under heavy press criticism for his proposal to eliminate the nuclear triad — the three independent legs of nuclear strike forces — and reorient Russian military aviation entirely to non-nuclear missions. He proposed focusing on land-based ICBMs and reducing nuclear missile submarines.

He made more enemies just last week when he criticized the overlapping Russian bureaucracies charged with controlling nuclear proliferation, and called for the establishment of one U.S.-Russian common body with authority to force coordination.

"About 10 Russian ministries and agencies, ranging from the Defense Ministry's 12th directorate to the Federal Space Agency, are responsible for the Global Partnership Program,” he complained. “And it is common knowledge that too many cooks spoil the broth.”

James Oberg, space analyst for NBC News, spent 22 years at the Johnson Space Center as a Mission Control operator and an orbital designer. He is also an expert on the Russian space program and author of the book "Star-Crossed Orbits: Inside the U.S.-Russian Space Alliance."

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