It is my strong opinion that it would be madness for the Russians to sign any nuclear reductions treaty with the United States. Prior to Bill Clinton taking office in 1992, James Baker, the then Secretary of State under Bush had promised Russia that we, that is the U.S. and NATO, would not encroach, militarily or politically, one inch into the newly formed free nations that made up the Soviet Union at the time if they would simply allow Germany to reunite and allow the various Soviet State to become sovereign nations. That promise was immediately broken by Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to the extent that the U.S. is now right up to the very borders of Russia with American military bases located in at least two of the former Soviet Satellite nations. The U.S. has built up the most powerful conventional high-tech weapon arsenal in the world which may soon include EMP weapons capable of neutralizing Russia and China's own nuclear deterrent.