Russia threatened on Thursday to pull out of a landmark nuclear arms control treaty unless the US backed away from plans to install its missile defence shield in Eastern Europe. Yury Baluyevsky, the Russian army chief of staff, said Moscow might unilaterally withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty, which forced the US and the Soviet Union to ban nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500km.There was “convincing evidence” for leaving the agreement because “many countries are developing and perfecting medium-range rockets”, he said.
| Like North Korea, Iran, Syria, Pakistan ... |
A senior Pentagon official said the US would “resist” the Russian move, which he said would have serious implications for American allies in Europe.
The INF treaty includes the right for a party to withdraw with six months’ notice if “extraordinary events ... jeopardised its supreme interests”. The State Department said Russia had not formally notified the US of any move to abrogate the treaty.
| Their withdrawal would also allow NATO to put IRBMs aimed at Russia into Poland, not that such a thing would happen. |
The US official said Russia had privately told the US it wanted medium-range missiles to counter Iranian threats while arguing publicly that the lack of Iranian missiles meant the US did not need a defence system.
| Lack of Iranian missiles today. Wait til the Norks, or disaffected Russian scientists, or the Russians themselves, help the Iranians to a working IRBM system. |
Yuri Solomonov, director of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, which manufactures missiles, told Itar-Tass news agency Russia was ready to resume production of medium-range ballistic missiles. Nato officials said Russia intended to pressure Poland and the Czech Republic to reject US plans, but added that what Moscow really wanted was to be included in a European-wide anti-missile system. “We are already talking to the Russians about co-operating on tactical missile defence for armies in the field,” said a senior Nato diplomat.