The future of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Force Treaty has been up in the air for several years, with US officials repeatedly claiming that a past Russian missile test amounted to a treaty violation. Russia has insisted that it was not a violation.
Over the weekend, Russia responded to the latest of what’s literally been some 4-5 years of US allegations over that test by again reiterating that they don’t see a violation, and that they are committed to the treaty.
But US-Russia tensions have gotten progressively worse through that 4-5 year span, which has turned “questions” about a possible technical violation into increasingly shrill US claims that Russia is “violating the treaty,” and threatening to withdraw from it.
In practice, the treaty is a relatively minor one among nuclear treaties, and one that officials likely believe they risk for the sake of picking more diplomatic fights with Russia. The risk, however, is that ditching this treaty will lead to the ditching of others, a partial concern given the recent US hostility toward anti-nuclear deals.
The author says “US-Russian tensions have gotten progressively worse” in a passive voice as if this is something natural that has occurred.
The correct statement would be to say that the United States has forced US-Russian tensions to worsen over the last few years.
After all, what great crimes has Russia committed? They’ve supported people in Ukraine who didn’t want to live under a fascist regime that is one of the world’s most corrupt nations and a human rights violator. And the Russians have fought and defeated terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Syria. That’s basically the list of Russia’s great ‘crimes’ that the US now claims requires a nuclear holocaust to oppose and which has inspired a policy of constantly trying to provoke Russia.
Its the USA that wants to force people to live under fascists and terrorists. Its the USA that has been provoking wars across the planet. Its the USA that hates the idea of peace breaking out anywhere in the world and its the USA that consistenly opposes any sort of peace talks in any of its many crisis that the USA has provoked. As just one example, its the USA that now wants ‘diplomatic isolation’ of North Korea, apparently just to make sure that no one comes up with a peaceful solution that would derail the USA’s drive for a nuclear war that would boost those defense stocks even higher.