Tu-22Ms,Kh-22s and Nuke subs?????

LAST EDITED ON 17-Feb-01 AT 06:44 PM (GMT)[p]
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/feb17/f1.htm

Russia may lease N-sub to India

MOSCOW, Feb 16 (PTI)

New Delhi and Moscow could be close to clinching a deal on leasing a Russian nuclear submarine to the Indian navy, a media report said.

Russian navy chief Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, currently in Mumbai to attend the international fleet review, is to negotiate details of the lease with Indian naval officials, Vremya Novostyei daily quoted deputy chief of Russian arms exporting agency Rosoboronexport, Viktor Komardin, as saying.

India is believed to have started negotiations for lease of Russian nuclear submarine a few years ago, but they were put on the backburner after Pokhran II tests, the report said.

“At that time Moscow decided that it was better not to give such a serious weapon system to the country which opened the door of the nuclear club with a kick of her boot,” it said.

This would be second time the Indian navy would be leasing a nuclear submarine from Russia.
In January 1988, India had leased ‘Charlie-1’ class nuclear submarine from the erstwhile Soviet Union, which sailed for three years under the Indian flag as ‘INS Chakra’.

Russian arms exporters do not see the lease of a nuclear submarine to India as “directly” going against the existinginternational non-proliferation regimes, but they qualify it “balancing on the verge of foul”, the report said.
Russia had recently come under fire from the US with American Defence Secretary Donal Rumsfeld charging it with “active proliferation.”

Earlier, the daily had disclosed Russia’s readiness to go ahead with the lease of four long-range nuclear capable ‘Tupolev’ TU-22m3 (Backfire-C-Nato classification) with deadly KH-22 cruise missiles to India, despite US objections.

Mr Rumsfield had said in a TV interview that Russia was “selling and assisting countries like India, Iran, North Korea and other countries with these technologies.”

A top Russian defence ministry official on Thursday denied the allegations and maintained that Moscow was “irreproachably fulfilling its international obligations, including under the regime of non-proliferation of missile technologies.”

Meanwhile, eight Indian crews have started training at the Russian air force’s long range aviation school in Ryazan, which coaches pilots for the Russian army’s strategic bombers, local defence sources told PTI.