General in charge of Russia’s nuclear weapons resigns


nsnbc : Lieutenant General Yuri Sych, head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s 12th Directorate and in charge of the storage, maintenance and launch preparation of the Russian Federation’s nuclear arsenal, resigned reportedly after complaining of health issues. President Vladimir Putin accepted Sych’s resignation.

Lieutnant General Yuri Sych_Russia_MoD_2017A source at the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed for nsnbc that Russisn President Vladimir Putin, earlier this week, accepted the resignation of Lieutenant General Yuri Sych.

It could, however, not be positively confirmed that Putin received Sych’s resignation on July 5, nor that Putin “secretly signed a decree” appointing Major General Igor Kolesnikov as acting head of the 12th directorate. nsnbc learned, however, that an appointment of Koleshnikov wasn’t unlikely.

Yuri Sych held his position since December 2010. He will reportedly still remain at his post for several more months, and he would not speculate on his possible successor.

The Russian Defense Ministry has praised Sych, saying he has maintained a high level of safety over the nation’s arsenals, without a single incident occurring during his command.

The 12th directorate is in charge of the storage of nuclear weapons, nuclear research institutes, nuclear monitoring services aimed at tracking foreign test facilities, and the test range on Novaya Zemlya, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Sych also worked with Russia’s Foreign Ministry on radiation safety issues as well as nuclear non-proliferation.

As of March 1, 2017, the Russian Federation has 1,765 strategic nuclear weapons plus tactical nuclear weapons. Disturbingly, both Russia’s as well as many NATO members’ nuclear weapons have been on hair-trigger-alert since the eruption of the crisis and civil war in Ukraine in 2014.

This means that those responsible for giving launch orders for nuclear weapons have – in the best case – 15 minutes and – in the worst case – no more than 3 minutes to make a decision whether to launch a nuclear strike. may experts described the situation, which is largely being omitted in Russian as well as in western media reports, as more dangerous than during the cold war.

CH/L – nsnbc 08.07.2917



Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/07/08/general-in-charge-of-russias-nuclear-weapons-resigns/

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