Thread by @JMichaelWaller

1) Russia is now practicing strategic nuclear missile drills. There’s a story behind this story. rferl.org/a/russia-new-m…

2) The Russian ballistic missile submarine in the photo, Yury Dolgoruky, was funded by the American taxpayers. It was the first of Russia’s next-generation SSBN’s, more modern than our Ohio-class subs.

3) Moscow was out of cash and couldn’t pay the shipyard workers to build the sub. The workers kept going on strike. They resumed work after the Clinton administration sent IMF cash to the Russian central bank. This happened at least twice. Biden was a big supporter in the Senate.

4) US was sending aid to Russia in early 1990s to help it recover from Soviet collapse and get closer to West. Some of us sought to leverage that aid to Moscow to abandon its Soviet strategic nuclear weapons modernization plan. Clinton-Biden-McCain etc opposed such leverage.

5) We specifically targeted that nuclear missile submarine in the photo, the first of the Borei class. We argued it would be in US interests to leverage economic aid to de-fund that new class of subs. Senators Nunn, Lugar, Biden, Kerry & McCain disagreed. Bipartisan “wisdom.”

6) The Borei-class sub was a prize project of Russian Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais, but stalled for lack of funds. October 1996: Chubais said he had arranged for Finance Ministry to free up funds in time for Yury Dolgoruky keel-laying ceremony at Shipyard 402 in Severodvinsk...

7) But the same day, IMF announced it was postponing its monthly tranches of a $10.2 billion loan, citing Moscow’s inadequate economic policies. The keel-laying ceremony was hastily postponed, supposedly due to inclement weather. Chubais kept pushing to free up cash for the sub.

8) Feb 7, 1997: IMF released the cash. That day, Finance Ministry announced it could pay the Russian State Center for Nuclear Shipbuilding, averting a strike. Construction of the Yury Dolgoruky resumed.

Feb 18, 2022: Borei-class subs at sea practice nuclear missile attack on US.

9) 1997: Asst Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter defended the US aid program that paid Russia to dismantle obsolete nuclear weapons systems while allowing Moscow to replace them with next-generation weapons. In my reply I mentioned the new submarines. academia.edu/11034977/Autho…

10) US officials were never held accountable for funding Moscow's strategic nuclear weapons modernization and lying about it. Many of them are still around. At the time, Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces were more open than the Clinton administration. centerforsecuritypolicy.org/russia-nuclear…