ABSTRACT
The debate concerned both history–the deployment by the Soviet Union of SS-20 missiles targeted on Western Europe–and existing Soviet arms control policy. Publication of the discussion marked a new stage of glasnost, and suggested that there was disagreement within the Soviet leadership over the future conduct of arms control negotiations with the USA. Soviet deployment of the SS-20 missiles in 1977 had caused considerable anxiety among the West European members of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Soviet deployment of the SS-20 missiles in 1977 had caused considerable anxiety among the West European members of nato. In 1983, after two years of unsuccessful US-Soviet negotiations over the "Euromissile" issue, the United States responded by deploying its cruise and Pershing-2 missiles in Western Europe. Aleksandr Bovin also criticized later Soviet arms control policies: And every time Moscow made a step forward, sparked hopes, politicians appeared who put a brake on the process.
