[speaker001:] uh I I hope I don't consider them a uh threat because uh uh we sure have taken down a lot of security measures that that we once had um I don't know seems um um maybe a little bit young to remember the uh I'm only I'm I'm twenty two so I don't think I remember the uh uh you know the height of the Cold War and and whatnot but I
[speaker002:] huh-uh
[speaker001:] I don't know I don't consider the Soviet Union a threat in that uh by any means just because of the fact that there's not uh uh anything that they have to threaten us with anymore
[speaker002:] well there not I mean there really is no Soviet Union now unfortunately they still do have a lot of uh nuclear weapons
[speaker001:] exactly that's that's true that's uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh the one thing that worries me is is question of stability and control
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh I think it's too early to say you know whether they're going to develop some stable societies there in one form or another
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] or whether this uh old uh Russian tendency to turn their fate over to some insane ruler is going to surface again
[speaker001:] sure yeah they didn't they didn't have a very good track record even before the revolution
[speaker002:] no they really didn't uh now you know they never really have had democracy there in any sense so
[speaker001:] no no
[speaker002:] um it's going to take both democracy and economic progress and uh resolution of their nationalist institutes I guess
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] all of that is going to have to happen and if any one of them turn sour they could still be uh dangerous simply because they might not you know they just might sort of lose track of what they're doing
[speaker001:] right um I I guess I'm not so concerned about an organized danger uh maybe for the maybe for the simple reason that um despite the fact that they do have uh you know probably a large uh substantial nuclear capability uh I'm not sure that that all of that capability is organized anymore I mean you know just along with it with the dissolution the that the of the uh Soviet Union I think that a lot happened with the dissolution of their of their military power
[speaker002:] but that's really part of the danger because they still have uh you know I think there still uh missile uh bases or silos in uh
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] in uh Kazakhstan probably in Ukraine
[speaker001:] right right
[speaker002:] as well as in Russia uh those in Russia may be some of them in areas that uh may have uh
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] strong local national sentiments because they aren't all Russians you know they're a lot of enclaves they have other nationalities
[speaker001:] yeah sure uh-huh
[speaker002:] and if even one uh missile silo got in the hands of someone who is uh determined to cause trouble for some for some reason they might launch a missile on someone
[speaker001:] I think I see your point uh you have you have uh where once you had uh one government controlling a a a large number of missiles now you have several smaller governments uh highly volatile
[speaker002:] governments and militaries and it's not always clear which one of them is in charge
[speaker001:] militaries yeah sure
[speaker002:] well that's maybe the uh the uh extreme pessimistic view
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] um think if uh Yeltsin has a chance and if they can follow his lead in the other republics or whatever they want to call themselves now
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] um they'll probably come out of it okay
[speaker001:] um-hum uh do you see uh I have not perceived and I wonder if you've perceived any uh uh antiAmericanism uh sentiments uh on any level like you know that that we receive from the from the Middle East for example
[speaker002:] what in the former Soviet Union
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] um not much I don't think I think that uh probably or uh or uh image there is pretty good most places as I understand it
[speaker001:] right um-hum do you worry that we might uh overstep I guess my question is do you do you think that there are ways that we might overstep overstep our bounds and provoke uh provoke anger in the Soviet Union and and what would those what would those steps be provoke a threat
[speaker002:] what might make them angry at us may make the people angry at us or the governments or both or
[speaker001:] um-hum you know both I guess
[speaker002:] well I think if they uh thought that we were taking advantage of their uh current preoccupations with internal matters or with
[speaker001:] um-hum