Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Monday that Moscow suspects NATO might deploy missiles in Europe that were previously banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and said Russia would respond by doing the same.
Ryabkov said there were “indirect indications” that NATO was thinking of deploying INF missiles. The military alliance has denied the accusation in the past, but Ryabkov said Russia has a “complete lack of trust” in NATO.
In 2019, the US withdrew from the INF, citing alleged Russian violations, although the Trump administration put no effort into discussing the issue with Moscow. The treaty was first signed by the US and the Soviet Union in 1987 and banned land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 500km to 5,500 km (310 to 3,410 miles).
Since the treaty was scrapped, Russia has been offering the US a mutual moratorium on the deployment of INF missiles to Europe. Ryabkov said Russia has asked for the moratorium as part of a package of security guarantees it is seeking from the West.
Last week, President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks on the issues surrounding Ukraine. Putin said Russia would continue dialogue with the US and would be submitting proposals for security guarantees soon.
Besides the INF moratorium, Russia wants NATO to guarantee that Ukraine will not become a member of the military alliance. US officials have reportedly told Ukraine that a NATO membership is unlikely to be approved within the next decade.
It was ominous when Washington did not return to the INF Treaty, one of many signs the nuclear powers are moving towards confrontation.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
I certainly hope not but… I’m rather inclined to agree with you.
A good story. I’d qualify one sentence: “In 2019, the US withdrew from the INF.” In 2019 Trump renounced the INF, in a legislative action for which he arguably lacked constitutional authority. Biden could revive it, if he wanted to.
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2021/12/13/russia-marks-the-thirtieth-anniversary-of-the-dissolution-of-the-ussr/
Russia Marks Thirtieth Anniversary of The USSR’s Dissolution.
https://www.mid.ru/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/4991520?p_p_id=101_INSTANCE_cKNonkJE02Bw&_101_INSTANCE_cKNonkJE02Bw_languageId=en_GB
What Russia is seeking regarding Ukraine and NATO.
https://newizv.ru/article/general/13-12-2021/mogila-v-zakone-gosudarstvo-prinimaet-natsionalnyy-standart-po-massovym-zahoroneniyam
A Russia directive toward mass burials. It appears to have more relevance as it relates to a nuclear war.
This is becoming a really big deal. Russia has demanded that the US and NATO not just enter negotiations over this issue, but actually take legally binding steps to cease NATO expansion, renounce the 2008 invitation to Ukraine and Georgia to enter NATO, and establish positional limits of US and NATO military forces vis-a-vis Russia’s borders in Europe and the Black Sea.
Russia is not negotiating any more. They are demanding this be done and within an – so far unspecified – time frame. If that doesn’t happen, they are suggesting that they will take unspecified “active steps” to insure this happens, which includes the suggested deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in places like Kalinograd. One of those “active steps” might be eliminating Ukraine as a functional state.