The 30 year anniversary of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) has brought a lot of new attention based on some very old missile tests by the Russian Federation, which the US has at times claimed amount to a violation of the pact.
NATO is now offering comments as well, but a lot less definitive, simply expressing “concerns” that the missiles might in fact violate the INF. NATO also said it was an “urgent concern” if Russia violated the treaty and the US keeps complying with it.
There’s no risk of that though, as while Russia denies that they’re violating the INF, there appears to be little question the US has been violating it for years with the deployment of missile defense systems into Eastern Europe.
The future of the INF appears much less dependent on the specifics of actual or even theoretical violations, than of growing US-Russia tensions, as the US appears eager to hype this missile test from years ago, and may want to withdraw from the treaty as part of the tit-for-tat hostile diplomacy.
