The New Cold War (Daniel 7)

Cold War hots up as Russia deploys new ICMB and US starts missile development | World | News

Simon Osborne

General Sir Mike Jackson: Putin is trying to rebuild Soviet Union

Washington warned it would start developing new weapons if the Kremlin continued to flout the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.

Russia in turn threatened to equip its military with “more powerful weapons within a very short time” if the US abandoned the 1987 accord signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.
US officials said Mr Trump wanted to remain in the INF but could not tolerate Russia’s continuing failure to comply.
One official said: “What we have decided to do is take the middle-ground option - that they have enjoyed to have their cake and to eat it - off the table.”
Washington has accused the Kremlin of breaching the INF treaty, which bans the possession, production or flight testing of nuclear-armed cruise and land-based nuclear ballistic missiles with a 300-mile to 3,400-mile range.

GETTY

Russia has been violating a weapons treaty limiting the development of nuclear missile systems

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Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev sign the INF treaty in 1987

The possibility of the treaty falling apart is inherent in the approach that we’re taking

US official

General Paul Selva, the vice-chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, told Congress back in March that Russia had deployed a new cruise missile that contravened the INF.Mr Trump’s national security team decided at the time not to take any action that would see the US in breach of the INF deal.
But it is understood the Pentagon is now researching modifications to existing weapons and developing new systems.
The official stressed Mr Trump wanted to save the treaty and would reverse the measures as soon as Russia returned to compliance.
He said: “The possibility of the treaty falling apart is inherent in the approach that we’re taking.
“We do not intend to remain bound, if they refuse to be bound, but our sincere hope is that we end up both being bound.”
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov rejected the US claims and branded them “absolutely unsubstantiated”.
He said Moscow was “ready to engage in a non-politicised, professional dialogue” but warned attempts to impose “ultimatums or to put military and political pressure on Russia through sanctions were unacceptable”.
Moscow said US missile defence systems in Romania — which are also scheduled for deployment in Poland next year — could be used to launch Tomahawk medium-range missiles and therefore breached the INF.
Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the foreign affairs committee of the Federation Council, said the Aegis Ashore system was “in gross violation of the INF treaty”.

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A second US official said Aegis Ashore did not violate the treaty because it was “not capable of launching a cruise missile”.

He also rejected ​Russian claims that rocket tests for​ missile defence systems​ and the use of armed drones b​reached the treaty​ b​ecause they were explicitly permitted.

Viktor Bondarev, chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s defence committee, said Russia would equip its military with “more powerful weapons within a very short time” if the US abandoned the INF.
Arms control experts have long warned of the potential for exactly that kind of dangerous escalation.
Douglas Barrie, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said if the US developed a ground-based cruise missile, and Russia continued to deny a breach, “it would provide Russian president Vladimir Putin a propaganda victory and a ‘legitimate’ reason to blame the US for the collapse of the INF Treaty”.
Moscow said a collapse of the treaty would greatly raise international security threats and spell doom for an extension of the new Start treaty due next year