"We will wait until our partners are ripe for dialogue": Russia suspends participation in the INF Treaty in response to US actions

February 2, 2019, 16:13 Georgy Mosalov, Anna Lushnikova

Russia suspends participation in the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (INF) following a similar step by the United States. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The head of state stressed that all attempts to reach an agreement with Washington were not crowned with success, and warned that the Russian side would not initiate negotiations, although all proposals to resolve the situation remain in force. In addition, the Ministry of Defense published data indicating the start of development in the United States of weapons prohibited by the agreement back in 2017. So, it became known that the Congress in November 2017 allocated $ 58 million for these purposes.

Russia, in response to a similar decision by the United States, suspends participation in the Treaty on the Elimination of Medium and Short Range Missiles. This was announced at a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said President Vladimir Putin.

"We will proceed as follows. Our answer will be a mirror. The American partners have announced that they are suspending their participation in the contract - and we are suspending. They announced that they are engaged in R & D, and R & D (development. - RT ), and development work - and we will do the same, "he said.

"We have repeatedly for many years constantly raised the issue of conducting meaningful disarmament negotiations, and in almost all its aspects. And in recent years, we see that our initiatives are not supported by partners, "Putin said.

The head of state noted that, despite the task of developing a new weapon, Russia should not "be drawn into the costly arms race." Shoigu said that the Ministry of Defense will be able to allocate funds for the development of missiles in the framework of the current state order for 2019.

"We have examined in detail this issue in the coming days will offer the budget adjustments in 2019 that will allow us, within and SAP (state armaments program -. RT ), and the state defense order for 2019 to do the job in the volume of those funds, which are provided on this year, without any increase, "said Shoigu.

At the same time, Putin stressed that Russia will not deploy medium-range or shorter-range missiles in any region of the world until the United States begins to do this.

"We presume that Russia will not place if such weapons appear, either in Europe or in other regions of the world, medium and shorter range weapons until such weapons of American manufacture appear in their respective regions of the world," the head noted. of the state.

"Real violation of the positions of the agreement"

Since 1999, the United States has violated the INF Treaty, said Lavrov in a conversation with Putin. Among the violations of the treaty by the Americans were testing combat UAVs with characteristics similar to prohibited weapons, target missiles, including ballistic missiles, the minister said.

"And in 2014, they began to deploy launchers for Europe, again, their positional areas of missile defense - Mk 41 launchers, which are absolutely suitable without any changes and for launching Tomahawk medium-range attack missiles," the head added. Russian Foreign Ministry.

In addition, the United States has already begun to manufacture medium-range and shorter-range missiles, Shoigu said.

"Despite the vagueness of the wording, it is obvious to us that, in addition to the open-ended research work on the production of medium and shorter-range missiles, we have been seeing for a number of years the real violation of the positions of the treaty. Simply put, the United States has begun to manufacture and manufacture these missiles, "the minister stressed.

As the Russian Defense Ministry reported, the production of banned DRSMD medium-range and shorter-range missiles in the United States began two years before they began to publicly accuse Russia of violating the agreement.

"According to irrefutable data at the Russian Defense Ministry, since June 2017, the enterprise of the military-industrial corporation Raytheon in the city of Tucson, Arizona has launched a program to expand and modernize production capacities in order to create medium-range and shorter-range missiles prohibited by the INF Treaty. defense department.

The ministry also talked about funding that was allocated directly for the production of banned PRSMD missiles.

"Almost simultaneously with the beginning of the expansion of production capacity of the plant, the American congress in November 2017 allocated the Pentagon with the first tranche of $ 58 million, directly indicating:" the development of a medium-range ground-launched missile, "explained the Defense Ministry.

"Thus, the nature and timing of the work carried out irrefutably testifies that the US administration decided to withdraw from the INF mode a few years before the unsubstantiated accusations were leveled at Russia for breach of contract," the agency concluded.

As measures taken in response to the actions of the United States, the Minister of Defense of Russia proposed developing possibilities for using land-based missiles Caliber in the ground version, as well as creating ground-based complexes of hypersonic medium-range and short-range ballistic missiles. Vladimir Putin endorsed these initiatives.

Recall that during the presidential address to the Federal Assembly on March 1, 2018, he spoke about promising weapons, which are not only being developed, but also being supplied to the army. In particular, they talked about the rocket complex with the Sarmat heavy intercontinental rocket, the nuclear power installation for the X-101 missiles and the Dagger hypersonic rocket.

"The most important stage of modern weapons systems was the creation of a high-precision hypersonic aviation-missile complex, also, as you already understood, which has no world analogues. His tests have been successfully completed, and, moreover, since December 1 of last year, the complex has begun to carry out operational combat duty at the airfields of the Southern Military District, "said Putin.

In addition, a new intercontinental hypersonic Avangard rocket was developed, capable of flying in dense layers of the atmosphere more than 20 times higher than the speed of sound. Putin emphasized that this rocket is "absolutely invulnerable to any air defense and anti-missile defense."

"Nobody essentially wanted to talk to us, no one listened to us. Listen now, "the president added.

"We sought to do everything to save the agreement"

Lavrov noted that Moscow has repeatedly put forward initiatives to preserve the INF Treaty, including making concessions in order to agree with Washington on the preservation of the agreement.

"In October, the United States officially announced that they were going to withdraw from the Treaty on Medium and Short Range Missiles. We sought to do everything to save this treaty, given the importance it has for maintaining strategic stability both in Europe and in the world as a whole, "the diplomat said.

"No reaction followed": the Defense Ministry announced that the Pentagon did not respond to Shoigu's proposal to discuss the INF Treaty
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu invited the head of the Pentagon, James Mattis, to discuss disagreements related to the Treaty on the Elimination ...

So, in December 2018, Shoigu sent a letter to James Mattis, then head of the Pentagon, with a proposal to discuss disagreements on the INF Treaty, but the US did not respond to it.

Later, the United States stated that the Russian rocket 9M729 allegedly violated the terms of the agreement. On January 15, Russian-American talks on the INF Treaty were held in Geneva, during which Moscow provided information on the 9M729 missile. However, Washington refused to cooperate, Lavrov noted.

"Our questions about why the Americans do not want to get acquainted with our proposals and with the specific parameters of this rocket live, remained unheard. Our proposals also remained unheard in response to the actions we are ready to take to dispel American fears, and to gain access to information concerning the problems we are experiencing with respect to compliance by the Americans with this treaty. It was all swept away, "he said on January 16th.

Later, on January 23, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation organized a briefing to which foreign military attaches, including from the United States and its NATO allies, were invited. Representatives of the defense department showed documentation, talking about the compliance of the INF range missiles.

However, neither the American attache, nor the majority of representatives of NATO countries at the briefing was not . In the Kremlin, this decision of the western countries was condemned, noting the refusal of dialogue on the INF.

"Of course, this is more than indicative, because it says that there is still no mood to discuss the issues of the INF Committee," said Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian president.

Due to the fact that the American side refused to all Russian proposals to conduct a dialogue on the INF Treaty, Moscow will no longer come up with new initiatives, Putin said.

"All our proposals, as before, in this area remain on the table, the doors for negotiations are open. At the same time, I ask both departments to continue not to initiate any negotiations on this issue. We will wait until our partners are ripe in order to conduct with us an equal, meaningful dialogue on this important topic for both us and our partners, and for the whole world, "the president emphasized.

"Americans took a tough stance"

Returning to the dialogue on the INF Treaty appealed not only to Russia, but also to European countries, but the United States continued to take a tough stance. This was recalled in a conversation with RT member of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Sergey Tsekov.

"Russia is doing everything to negotiate, explaining its position, saying that it is interested in maintaining the contract. European countries also supported our position . The Americans, on the other hand, took a tough stance, came forward with unsubstantiated accusations. In this situation, it was necessary to do exactly as our president, "- said the senator.

At the same time, Russia's decision to give exactly the mirror response to the actions of the United States will simultaneously demonstrate to the American politicians the danger of the launching of the destruction of the INF Treaty and prevent the arms race, believes Yury Shvytkin, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense and Security.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin made an absolutely informed decision that fits the realities of the times. It will sober up US politicians and pro-Western politicians who are trying to impose an arms race on us and destroy the security system in the world, "he told RT.

At the same time, it is unlikely that US President Donald Trump will go into new negotiations on the question of the INF Committee, says political scientist Sergei Sudakov, corresponding member of the Academy of Military Sciences.

"Vladimir Putin stressed that Russia does not want an arms race. He absolutely correctly urged Americans to think. But we see that Donald Trump is the leader who is beginning to destroy the system of international relations for so long and hard to create, "the expert said in an interview with RT.