("Who's Hand
on the Button?" cont'd)
Russia retains its Cold War policy of being prepared to launch its missiles upon warning of an American attack instead of waiting for confirmation that the U.S. has actually struck. In nuclear jargon it's called a "hair-trigger posture." The danger is that missiles could be fired based on faulty radar readings.

That is the situation as it stands currently. How would it change with Zyuganov in power? He has said little on the subject of nuclear weapons, though the Communists do oppose START II, and intelligence analysts are uncertain of his plans for the nuclear arsenal. What is clear is that he is a communist and a nationalist who speaks menacingly of bringing now-independent states back into a Soviet Union.

"A nuclear war is unlikely under a Zyuganov presidency, but it is even more unlikely under a Yeltsin presidency," says arms expert Andrei Zobov, an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Moscow. Where nuclear war is concerned, the difference between unlikely and more unlikely is not a trivial one, so here is another reason for the U.S. to hope Yeltsin wins, despite all his flaws. -reported by Andrew Keith and John Kohan/Moscow

ABOVE: Russia stil has 6,000 active warheads
Vladimir Mashatin

Don't Forget
the Benefits 		Whose Hand
On the Button? 		The Baltics Fear
the Hungry Bear