Helsinki

A friend of mine texted me breathlessly when the president of the United States said, in an interview, that when he met with President Putin of Russia, they might discuss doing away with nuclear weapons altogether. It is typical of our president to dangle the thing we want before our eyes and pretend to consider doing it. It is part of his desire, I believe, to feel powerful.

The difficulty is that nuclear weapons are important symbols for both the United States and Russia. And the two men who currently lead those countries are both deeply attached to symbols of power. Our president, you could say, is obsessed with symbols. For most of his career they have been symbols of wealth--gold plated toilets, large gaudy rooms, gold signs of his own name on the outsides of buildings. But his appetite for symbols is clear.

And the Russian president, too, is attached to symbols. Perhaps not as ostentatiously as our president, but the Russian president is in greater need of those symbols. Russia is a shell of the former Soviet Union. It is weaker, both militarily and economically. President Putin is not in a position to bargain away any of his symbols of power.

It seems to me that the best we can hope for is an agreement that the START Treaty--with it's reporting and inspection provisions--will be extended for an additional five years. I don't believe this president or his counterpart in Russia will agree to reducing the number of nuclear weapons.