MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/. Russia's withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) will allow the country to deploy such weapons not only at home but also to friendly nations and allies for the protection of their security and sovereignty amid the collective West’s increased military buildup in its areas of geopolitical interest, Alexander Stepanov, military expert with the Institute of Law and National Security at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration and senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Latin American Studies, told TASS.
On August 4, Russia announced an end to its moratorium on the deployment of ground-launched short-and medium-range missiles, adopted after the INF Treaty with the US had been terminated. The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed to the collective West’s steps regarding the proliferation of such weapons, saying that they created a direct threat to Russia’s security, which was why Moscow no longer considered itself bound by its self-imposed restrictions.
"Have no doubt that Russia will use all tools to protect its sovereignty. Moreover, by pulling out of the INF Treaty, Russia is lifting the restrictions it was voluntarily abiding by, securing a right to deploy Oreshnik systems to its friendly countries, which have distinguished themselves as real allies amid the global confrontation initiated by the West," Stepanov pointed out.
According to him, Oreshnik missile systems, whose serial production was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 1, fall within the scope of the INF Treaty, which has ceased to be relevant and valid in terms of international law. This is about the system’s range and the potential enemy’s inability to intercept its hypersonic warheads, capable of carrying thermonuclear weapons. It is the Oreshnik system that could mark Russia’s tit-for-tat response to the West’s attempts to expand its military infrastructure and deploy offensive weapons closer to the Russian border. In particular, in the expert’s words, a multi-domain operational team equipped with Dark Eagle long-range hypersonic missiles has recently been deployed to Germany, and in the near future, such units of offensive missile capabilities are highly likely to be deployed along Russia’s eastern borders, namely to military facilities in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and in the Arctic.
The same policy is also applied to other countries that are not part of the Washington Consensus' circle. Those include Russia’s key foreign policy partners such as China, North Korea, Iran, and some Latin American and Caribbean nations, namely Venezuela, whose hydrocarbon reserves are the largest in the Western Hemisphere, and Bolivia, which has major deposits of rare earth metals. Amid increased threats from NATO, these countries would be ready to adopt effective tools of deterrence, including Oreshnik systems.
On INF Treaty
The INF Treaty was signed by the Soviet Union and the United States in December 1987. It banned the deployment of missile launchers, ground-based and cruise missiles with a range from 500 to 5,500 kilometers. On December 4, 2018, the United States said it would withdraw from the treaty unless Moscow returned to compliance within 60 days, but failed to present evidence of Russia’s non-compliance. Moscow expressed readiness not to manufacture and deploy such missiles as long as Washington refrained from doing so in any part of the world.