MOSCOW -- A Russian state with fewer nuclear weapons, laws that are firmly enforced and a working market system: It sounds like the Russia that Western leaders hoped for, vainly, throughout the chaotic years under former President Boris N. Yeltsin.
His successor, Vladimir V. Putin, said Friday that he plans to make it all happen. In his first substantial comments on policy since being elected Sunday, Putin expressed his determination to rid Russia of excess nuclear weapons while improving the effectiveness of Russia's strategic missiles.He said he wants to push the stalled START II treaty through the lower house of parliament, the Duma, where the Communists and leftist forces have lost their majority and the power to block the 1993 treaty.
"We are setting the task to free the world from piles of excessive weapons," Putin said as he made his first trip since being elected to the closed nuclear city of Snezhinsk, which was known as Chelya-binsk-70 in Soviet times.
Putin's words were likely to be welcomed in the West, where his tough pre-election rhetoric and his calls to rebuild Russia's military and create a strong state sent out tremors of alarm that he might lead the country down an authoritarian path.
He said Friday that the West had misread his calls for a strong state, explaining that this didn't mean the growth of the armed forces and security services.
"What we are talking about is a strong state where rules are secured by laws and their observation is guaranteed," he said.
Putin also repeated his pledge to fight corruption and affirmed his commitment to pro-market economic policies.
With speculation rife in Russia about the makeup of a new government -- which will be announced only after Putin's inauguration in early May -- the president-elect didn't rule out a Communist participating, although his requirement that any government member support pro-market policies would appear to effectively exclude them.
Putin has taken a generally low-key approach in the week since his election, and his comments Friday provide the clearest picture yet of a leader likely to meet with Western approval on key issues such as pro-market policies and cuts to nuclear weapons. Concerns about his commitment to human rights and press freedom remain.
"Russia is holding, and will continue to hold, talks on further cuts in strategic offensive weapons aimed at making the world safer and ridding it of stockpiles of arms," Putin said. "Our aim is to make our nuclear weapons complex more safe and effective."
He also indicated his desire to see a conversion of the nuclear industry to civilian purposes, but he ruled out automatic staff cuts.
The chaos in nuclear towns across Russia has raised fears of corrupt trade in nuclear materials and the risk of defections by ill-paid Russian scientists to states wishing to acquire nuclear weapons.
During his election campaign, as Putin sought to appeal to nationalists, liberals and Communist voters simultaneously, his often-contra-dictory statements were difficult to read -- although Western leaders who met him described him as a man they could work with.
Although his remarks on restructuring the nuclear industry and cutting strategic weapons were encouraging, there might be a subtle warning to the United States in Putin's comment that he is determined to improve the effectiveness of Russia's nuclear deterrent.
U.S. efforts to develop a national missile defense shield have alarmed Moscow, which fears that such a system would undermine its nuclear deterrent.
In another comment that might raise a note of caution in the United States, Putin supported Russian sales of nuclear technology internationally.