NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Gorbachev Urges Trump, Putin to Stop ‘New Arms Race’

Along with Putin.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has called on U.S. President Donald Trump to join Russia's Vladimir Putin in reducing the world's nuclear weapons. In an Op-Ed in Time magazine, Gorbachev said the two leaders “bear a special responsibility” to “stop and reverse” the “new arms race.” As “the presidents of two nations that hold over 90% of the world’s nuclear arsenals,” Trump and Putin should be the ones to take the first steps on the issue, he said. Gorbachev painted a grim picture of a world close to self-destruction. “Relations between the great powers have been going from bad to worse for several years now,” he said. “The advocates for arms build-up and the military-industrial complex are rubbing their hands,” he wrote. His comments, which came on the same day the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists said the “Doomsday Clock” was closer to midnight, may fall on deaf ears when it comes to Trump. Last month, Trump said he believed the U.S. should “strengthen and expand its nuclear capabilities.”