The Evolution of the Russian Approach to the MTCR: The End of a Chapter?

Abstract

The issues of missile proliferation have attracted serious attention at the end of the last century as this threat had suddenly emerged endangering the leading global democracies. The traditional instruments of coping with it in the past have proved to be unsatisfactory in controlling the proliferating urges of certain problem states, including Russia. This article, while briefly tracing the genesis and analyzing the periods of Moscow’s missile-related dealings, suggests some innovative ways to stem the Russian proliferation threat, real or virtual - with the view of completely eliminating this topic as a potential irritant in global nonproliferation and Russia’s interrelationship with the West. The author attempts to evoke a thesis that the entire “chapter” of the Russian missile proliferation threat with its periods and specific cases might be a by-gone problem of the country’s readjustment period which has been completed with the advent of Putin’s administration.