NATO Rejects Russia Request to Keep Intermediate Missiles Out of Europe

NATO announced on Friday that they have formally rejected a request from Russian President Vladimir Putin to prohibit the deployment of any missiles into Europe that would’ve violated the now canceled Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

The INF treaty covered nuclear arms of an intermediate range, and since the US withdrew, Russia has warned of an arms war if US nuclear arms of this range were deployed to Europe or Asia.

NATO officials say that they don’t consider this a “real offer,” because NATO still considers the Russian 9M729 missile a violation of the INF, even though Russia argues it’s never been tested at such a range before.

NATO has yet to say they have any intention of deploying any INF-level nuclear arms in Europe, but the fact that they are openly spurning Russia’s proposal certainly gives the impression they are considering it. Russia’s response would almost certainly be more arms deployed to the exclave of Kaliningrad.