MOSCOW, October 12./TASS/. Russia does not yet see the United States’ willingness to return to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) and is unlikely to see it given the anti-Russian hysteria in the West, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Venediktov said in an interview with TASS on Wednesday.
"We do not see any willingness to return to the INF Treaty or its equivalent, and it is unlikely that we will see it in the near future, given the anti-Russian and anti-Chinese hysteria whipped up by the West," Venediktov said.
Moreover, the development of strike weapons "is a gold mine for the US military-industrial complex," he noted. "Amid the crisis that the US economy is sinking into today, this is very relevant for the White House," the deputy secretary of the Security Council went on to say.
"Russia took unprecedented measures to keep the INF Treaty, although from the very start there was a feeling that Washington had decided its fate right off the bat," he stressed. "We tried to maintain a dialogue, we made goodwill steps and publicly presented data on the armaments that raised questions with the Americans - we even held a presentation for foreign military attaches," the security official said.
He also pointed out that the last attempt to remedy the situation was made by Moscow last December within the framework of initiatives on legally binding security guarantees between Russia and the US. "We know full well how the attempts to negotiate ended," Venediktov noted.
"Let's put it bluntly: the treaty was not suspended, it was simply unilaterally trashed by the Americans, who suddenly decided that it was preventing them from strengthening their security. In fact, they just wanted to remove the legal obstacle in order to develop strike weapons, which they were already developing at full steam by the time the INF Treaty collapsed," Venediktov said.
About the INF Treaty
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed by the Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987, took effect on June 1, 1988. It applied to deployed and non-deployed ground-based missiles of intermediate range (1,000-5,000 kilometers) and shorter range (500-1,000 kilometers). Washington repeatedly accused Russia of violating the accord, but Moscow vehemently dismissed all accusations and, in turn, expressed grievances over Washington’s non-compliance.
On February 1, 2019, then US President Donald Trump announced the suspension of Washington’s obligations under the INF starting on February 2. That same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was also suspending the agreement. On August 2, 2019 Washington formally withdrew from the INF Treaty and the Russian Foreign Ministry, in turn, officially confirmed that the Treaty had been terminated at the United States’ initiative.
It was reported in September 2019 that Russian President Vladimir Putin had put forward a proposal to the leaders of some countries, including NATO member states, to introduce a moratorium on deploying intermediate-and shorter-range missiles in Europe and other regions.