What We’ll Do About Putin’s Growing Nuclear Threats

Here’s a news flash that ought to feature prominently in tonight’s vice presidential debate:  Vladimir Putin’s Russia has withdrawn from an agreement governing the disposal of plutonium usable in nuclear weapons.  Even more ominous is its stated justification for doing so.

The Kremlin blamed “a fundamental change of the circumstances and the emergence of a threat to strategic stability as a result of unfriendly actions by the United States towards Russia.”  That sure sounds like it’s laying the groundwork for conflict.

Unfortunately, Dr. Mark Schneider, one of America’s preeminent authorities on nuclear threats, has just determined that Putin is also modernizing and expanding his strategic nuclear forces in ways that will likely violate the seriously flawed New START Treaty negotiated by President Obama and his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

A long-overdue debate about restoring our deterrent must begin tonight.