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Another Russian daily supports India's tests, criticises US and Moscow

Soon after Russia's state-owned daily Rossisskaya Gazeta came out with an exhaustive article supporting India's nuclear tests, Izvestia, another major newspaper there, has reiterated it, and urged Moscow to play a greater role in nuclear disarmament.

The pro-government Russian daily, in a long analysis on Wednesday, said the United States failed to reprimand Pakistan when it tested the Ghauri missile -- but it lost no time to impose sanctions when India conducted five nuclear tests a month later.

Significantly, the daily also criticised the Russian leadership for ''putting India, a nation of 950 million and a traditional friend, at the bottom of its priority lists.''

The article went on to highlight how the US was reluctant to discuss the nuclear weapons programme of its allies like Pakistan and Israel with anyone, least of all Russia.

US support to the nuclear ambitions of Pakistan, an authoritarian state and a centre of Muslim fundamentalism and drug trafficking, put a question mark on Washington's claim on moral leadership, the daily said.

Describing India as a ''secular and democratic'' state, Izvestia said the US strategy had been to see Pakistan got an advantage in its game of one-upmanship with its neighbour.

UNI

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