"In connection with the violation by the United States of its obligations": Putin signed a decree to suspend the implementation of the INF Committee

Russia has officially suspended the implementation of the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (INF). The corresponding decree was signed by President Vladimir Putin.

"Based on the need to take immediate measures in connection with the violation by the United States of its obligations under the Treaty between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America on the elimination of their medium-range and shorter-range missiles," the decree says.

The fact that Moscow intends to suspend its participation in the treaty became known on February 2 of this year. Then Putin, at a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, indicated that Russia was forced to take mirror measures on the actions of the United States, which suspended the implementation of the INF.

“We will proceed as follows. Our answer will be a mirror. 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, ”said Putin.

At the same time, the head of the Russian state said that Russia would only deploy previously banned weapons in Europe or other regions as mirror measures in response to similar actions by the United States.

“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,” Putin stressed. .

“Any contract, especially a bilateral one, it assumes the presence of a partner. If the Americans said that they suspend their participation, then it is quite obvious that the treaty loses all meaning. In the form in which it was concluded, the contract assumed the same responsibility of the two parties. We simply fix the objective reality, we talked about this, ”said Andrei Klimov, head of the state sovereignty protection committee, in an interview with RT.

"Our questions went unheard"

Recall that the US intention to withdraw from the INF Treaty became known in October 2018. Then the American president Donald Trump declared that Russia “did not observe” the treaty, and therefore Washington would withdraw from it.

“I don’t understand why (ex-US President Barak - RT ) Obama did not negotiate or did not withdraw (USA from PRSD . - RT ). We will not allow them to violate the agreement ... Russia did not comply with the agreement, therefore, unfortunately, we will terminate the agreement and get out of it, ”he said.

He also added that the United States will begin developing medium- and shorter-range missiles.

In Russia, it was noted many times that they do not violate the provisions of the INF. Moreover, Moscow has repeatedly launched initiatives to conduct substantive negotiations on mutual claims under the agreement.

So, in December last year, Shoigu sent a letter to the then head of the Pentagon, James Mattis. In the message, the Russian head of the Ministry of Defense offered to discuss disagreements on the agreement. However, the American side did not give any answer.

Initially, the United States did not disclose what exactly their claims were about the fulfillment of the terms of the agreement by Russia. At the end of 2018, the American side stated that the INF Treaty was allegedly violating the 9M729 missile.

On January 15, Russian-American talks on this rocket took place in Geneva, during which Moscow provided information on 9M729. This was the day after the meeting told Lavrov.

“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.

Nevertheless, on January 23, the Ministry of Defense of Russia invited foreign military attaches to a briefing on this rocket. In the course of it was provided documentation and characteristics, testifying to the compliance of the INF.

However, neither the American attache, nor the representatives of the majority of NATO countries came to the briefing. The Kremlin then noted that this could indicate a refusal by Western countries to engage in dialogue on the INF Treaty.

“Undoubtedly, this is more than indicative, because it says that there is still no mood to discuss the problems of the INF Treaty,” said Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.

“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.

"Real violation of the positions of the contract"

The United States has repeatedly violated the INF Treaty, to which Russia filed substantive charges, while American statements about Moscow’s non-compliance with the treaty were unsubstantiated, said Andrei Krasov, first deputy chairman of the Duma defense committee.

“I will recall the claims to the American side - this is also the deployment of Mk 41 launchers in Europe, which fall under the scope of the contract, if they place Tomogawks, target missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles on them. The Americans blamed the Russian side for allegedly failing to comply with the contract - these accusations were unfounded and groundless, ”the deputy noted in an interview with RT.

So, at a meeting with Putin on February 2, Shoigu said that the United States had begun to develop and manufacture banned missiles even before the charges were brought against Russia.

“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 noted.

"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. Ministry of Defense.

In addition, the defense ministry cites data that in November 2017 the US Congress officially allocated the first tranche to the Pentagon in the amount of $ 58 million. It was indicated that these funds would be spent "on the development of a medium-range missile."

“Thus, the nature and timing of the work carried out irrefutably indicate 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 ministry concluded.