US
Violations of Nuclear Treaty
US
Violations of Nuclear Treaty
From a
Russian Perspective Washington’s unsubstantiated claims of Russian violations
of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty are cover for Washington’s
violations.
ABOUT THE SITUATION WITH THE
INF-TREATY AFTER 2017
30.12.2017
We have more than once touched
on the question of unfounded accusations against Russia about alleged
violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (further INFT) [1,
2]. The most active campaign against Russia in order to discredit her and
publicly accuse her of violating the treaty is organised by the US from 2013
onwards. Such accusations have, sadly, become part and parcel of the foreign
politics of the US in the last years of the Obama administration.
Having first appeared as ‘fakes’
in newspapers, these accusations were later widely discussed by the American
mass media and were picked up on an official level by Congress and the US
administration. To be precise, such accusations were to be found with an
enviable regularity in reports by the US State Department about the observation
of treaties in the area of weapons regulation in 2014, 2015, and 2016.
The changing of the US president
in 2017 and his creation of a new team gave birth to definite hope about the
normalisation of bilateral relations between the US and Russia, including on
the question of the INFT. However, these hopes soon turned out to be in vain:
the US establishment opposed to D. Trump is successful in its sabotage of the
realisation of a balanced political approach to relations with Russia, which
Trump announced in his election campaign. This fully concerns the problems
surrounding the INFT, which 2017 did not bring any progress towards
solving.
To be more precise, the last
report of the US State Department which was published in 2017 again reported
allegations of violations of the INFT from our side. In addition, this
document, as well as its predecessors, has given no strong arguments in support
of the propagated pretensions.
During 2017, allegations against
Russia continued to appear bit by bit in the American mass media. And if
earlier the US had made statements about alleged violations of the INFT by
Russia during missile testing, now there are accusations about Russia’s
deployment of land-based winged missiles, which are banned by the treaty.
Representatives from a series of
American agencies and political institutes use a similar ‘factology’ as an
excuse for the start of the next campaign of ‘aggression’, or, as they call it,
‘response’ measures in relation to Russia. To be more precise, this is about
the American Congress.
According to reports from the
mass media, in 2017 laws were in development in Congress, which would allow the
US to develop mid-range land-based missiles and give similar technologies to
its European allies.
In the autumn of 2017, Congress
approved the defence budget for 2018, as a result of which the US president
made resources for the development of a mid-range land-based missile available.
The budget provides for the allocation of 58 million dollars for “measures in
response to Russia’s violation of the INFT, including a research and
development program for a land-based mid-range missile, which would not put the
US in danger of violating the treaty.” Thus, the legislators have allowed, but
not ordered, the Pentagon to develop such a missile. A final decision of this
question was to be made by the US president; he supported the measures.
At the same time, together with
the promulgation of accusations toward Russia, the US have for many years been
ignoring serious Russian concerns about the US upholding their side of the
INFT.
In contrast to the US’ unfounded
pretentions, the Russian concerns are based on concrete facts, in particular
the following:
- The US have equipped anti-missile weaponry
installations in Romania with missile launchers, analogous MK-41 universal
delivery systems, which can fire winged mid-range ‘Tomahawk’
missiles;
- In the interests of anti-missile defence,
the US continue to test target missiles similar in technical specifics to
land-based ballistic missiles of the medium and short ranges;
- The US are increasing the production and use
of pilotless flying strike craft, which fall under the definition of
land-based mid to short-range winged rockets.
We must note, that Russia has
been pointing out the last two breaches for fifteen years. The president of the
Russian Federation mentioned all these breaches when he gave a speech on a
collegium of the defence ministry on the 22nd of December 2017.
Nonetheless, the US stubbornly
move away from a substantive discussion of the problems surrounding the INFT,
ignoring the institutionalised practice of solving such questions through
established mechanisms.
Apart from this, in the
beginning of December 2017 US president Donald Trump approved a new package of
sanctions against Russia because of alleged violations of the INFT[3]. Also,
the US actions, alongside its drive to limit Russian arms contracts, are
dedicated to drawing the attention of the world community away from clear US
violations of the INFT.
These actions of the US
administration will cause nothing but an escalation in the international
arena.
We must regrettably accept, that
in 2017 the world has become a more dangerous place, among other things because
of US violations of the INFT and the US administration’s unwillingness to
resolve the problems that have piled themselves up.
___
Sources used:
1. https://www.geopolitica.ru/en/article/issue-denunciation-intermediate-range-nuclear-treaty-part-v
2. https://www.geopolitica.ru/en/article/issue-denunciation-intermediate-range-nuclear-forces-treaty
Translated from the Russian by
V.A.V.
/https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2021/09/25/huawei-executive-meng-wanzhou-receives-warm-welcome-upon-return-to-china/_1_meng_wanzhou_2.jpg)
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