Possible withdrawal from INF Treaty by U.S. to jeopardize its allies in Europe - Kosachyov
MOSCOW. June 25 (Interfax) - Russia will respond to the possible withdrawal by the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Konstantin Kosachyov, the head of the Federation Council committee on international affairs, said.
"It's a fairly clumsy step in terms of the security of America's allies and the United States itself: response steps taken by Russia - and they will undoubtedly be taken in this case - would make our intermediate-range missiles in the European part of the country strategic from the point of view of threats to the Europeans. Russia's strategic nuclear forces would remain a factor affecting the strategic security of America," Kosachyov told Interfax on Sunday, commenting on the information that a group of U.S. congressmen have suggested to the Trump administration that the U.S. should withdraw from the INF Treaty.
"It's an extremely dangerous idea, which leads in the direction of consistent destruction of the arms control legal framework, which is not in an ideal state as it is, and also the escalation of an arms race, in which there are no winners," the senator said.
The Pentagon, the Department of State and the U.S. National Security Council are currently apparently not excited by the Congressmen's initiative and they are unlikely to give it the green light in the near future. However, the INF Treaty issue arose a long time ago, he said.
"The Obama administration was accused of not being tough enough on Russia on this matter. Although the Department of State officially directed the attention of the Russian administration to the threat of violation of the IFN Treaty for the first time back in May 2013, no convincing evidence has been provided to us," the senator said.
In the meantime, Kosachyov said the placement by the U.S. in Europe of the land-based missile defense systems Aegis Ashore with systems allowing for the launch of intermediate-range cruise missiles Tomahawk was a violation of the obligations under the INF Treaty.
"If the current fuss with the withdrawal from the treaty is caused by a wish to give themselves freedom to continue this practice, it's far not the best way of going down into history for the Trump administration, which will increase the threats to everyone, primarily to America itself. And it will hurt its European allies, as did the recent initiative of the Senate to apply the U.S. sanctions to European energy companies," Kosachyov said.
In the meanwhile, he said he hopes for Washington's reasonableness, "although there are clear problems with that now."
"And we will again hope for an active position of the Europeans, as it happened in the past few days in the situation with the new sanctions initiative of the Senate," Kosachyov said.