TODAY: Putin says Russia could drop nuclear weapons if others do so; military chief recommends maintaining 1500 warheads; Arctic envoy assures that competition over region not a military matter; Hollywood actor’s new role as Siberian traffic cop

Vladimir Putin has declared at a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier that if other countries renounced their nuclear stockpiles, Russia would be willing to do the same.  The German Foreign Minister urged Russia to be ‘constructive’ in its talks on weapon reductions with Barack Obama.  In the matter of nuclear reduction or missile defense ‘unilateral steps are not expected from either the Russian Federation or the United States’, says Sergei Lavrov.  Meanwhile a top Russian general, Nikolai Solovtsov, has said that in the new deal offensive weapons in space must be prohibited, but 1,500 nuclear warheads should be maintained.  Solovtsov remains realistic: ‘in any case the issue will be decided by the political leadership’.