The State Department is treating the fate of the Intermediate Nuclear
Forces (INF) treaty as a fait accompli, though officially the US won’t withdraw from the Cold War-era treat until early February. That withdrawal is built around US claims that Russia is violating the INF, though Russia denies this is the case.
Russia has been trying to save the treaty, to the point that they put the missile in question on public display
for foreign military attaches and the press this week at a military
theme park near Moscow. US officials insist it’s not enough.
US officials are offering a new round of arms control talks in Beijing
next week with Russia, but it doesn’t appear this is going to be in time
to save the INF, with the US still demanding Russia just abandon their
new missiles outright, or give them to the US for American military
testing.
This is expected to go about as well as it did the last several times
the US demanded this. Russia has repeatedly declined and noted that the
US has refused to give them even limited access to certain new US
nuclear assets for compliance questions.
US Expects to Pull Out of Nuclear Arms Treaty Soon
Officials offer Russia more arms control talks
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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