A central theme of Barack Obama’s national security policy is that nuclear-armed states should reduce their reliance on such terrible weapons. If the United States and the other nuclear states set an example and take progressive steps toward the ultimate goal of zero nuclear weapons, others will follow along.

The message has clearly not yet gotten through to Pyongyong or Tehran. Nor, for that matter, has it gotten through to Moscow.  Here is what General Oleg Frolov, acting head of Russian armaments, has just told the Duma: