U.S.-Russia nuclear deal: spin or deep cut?

By Guy Faulconbridge - Analysis

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev on Monday agreed a target of cutting vast Cold War arsenals of deployed nuclear warheads by around a third from current levels to 1,500-1,675 each.

The pledge by Obama and Medvedev puts the world's two biggest nuclear powers further along the path to finding a replacement for the landmark 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) which expires on December 5.

But the cuts announced on Monday only take the United States and Russia 25 operationally deployed warheads below a range of 1,700-2,200, which both sides had already committed to reach by 2012 under the 2002 Moscow Treaty.

After the cuts -- which have to be made within seven years of a new treaty taking force -- the United States and Russia will still have enough firepower to destroy the world several times over. Many hurdles remain to finding a replacement to START by December.

Russia and the United States are still haggling over what exactly constitutes a nuclear weapon and the Kremlin is deeply opposed to U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Europe.

NUCLEAR CUTS

Finding agreement on a replacement for START-1, signed by George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev just months before the close of the Cold War, is seen by both sides as a way to "reset" relations after the friction of recent years.

Presidents Obama and Medvedev agreed at their first meeting in London on April 1 to pursue new reductions to strategic nuclear weapons and instructed negotiators to begin talks on a replacement for START-1.