An ignorance of current problems in relations between Russia and the United States reflects a widespread misunderstanding of the extraordinary threats of an arms race in the nuclear era, The National Interest published an article by Lyle J. Goldstein.

According to the source, many people are noticing the new signs of the Cold War as the hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on new generations of strategic nuclear weaponry in both the United States and Russia, as well as the increasing tendency to deploy these weapons in destabilizing patterns of operations.

The author referred to an article published on the Russian website of Military Review under the intriguing, if disturbing title: “In place of thousands of warheads: will the ‘Bulava’ (SLBM) save Russia?” The article begins with the assessment that many “were in fact naïve to believe that Russia and the United States would curb their nuclear arsenals as they did half a century ago.”

According to the analysis, “Russia has, in theory, adequate forces for a guaranteed retaliatory blow from its land-based forces in silos and mobile platforms. However, the author maintains that these systems are quite vulnerable. Even the rail-based system “Barguzin” is said to “also have inadequacies connected to vulnerability”

For the author, there is no visible alternative to maintaining Russia’s nuclear triad.

The author wonders whether the Kremlin’s concern with its “nuclear triad” is in America’s national interests.

According to the author, such a position will increase the risk of misunderstanding, escalation, preemptive strikes and catastrophic accidents in a very close to reality scenario of an underwater collision.