Russia ready to address nuclear pact grievances

Trump threatens to pull US out of Cold War-era arms pact

Russia is ready to work on addressing mutual grievances with the way that the IntermediateRange Nuclear Forces Treaty is being implemented, a senior security adviser to President Vladimir Putin said yesterday.

Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, was quoted as making the comments by Russian news agencies after a meeting in Moscow with John Bolton, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.

Patrushev was also quoted as saying that he and Bolton had discussed extending the New START arms control treaty, which is due to expire in 2021, by a further five years. He did not say if any agreement was reached.

Earlier, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that ditching the treaty “will make the world more dangerous” and rejected US claims that Moscow has violated the pact, instead accusing Washington of doing so.

“It is the United States that is eroding the foundations and main elements of this pact” with its missile defence capabilities and drones, he said.

Russia said yesterday it would be forced to respond in kind to restore the military balance with the United States if President Donald Trump carried through on a threat to quit a landmark nuclear arms treaty and began developing new missiles.

Trump drew a warning of “military-technical” retaliation from Moscow after saying on Saturday that Washington would withdraw from the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which rid Europe of land-based nuclear missiles.

The INF treaty, signed by then-President Ronald Reagan and reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 at a time of unprecedented East-West detente, required the elimination of all shortrange and intermediaterange land-based nuclear and conventional missiles held by both countries in Europe.

Its demise raises the possibility of a renewed arms race, and Gorbachev, now a frail 87-year-old, has warned that unravelling it could have catastrophic consequences.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov yesterday called Trump’s withdrawal plan a matter of deep concern for Moscow.

“Such measures can make the world more dangerous,” he said during a daily conference call with reporters.

Despite repeated Russian denials, US authorities believe Moscow is developing and has deployed a ground-launched system in breach of the INF treaty that could allow it to launch a nuclear strike on Europe at short notice.

Trump said the United States would develop equivalent weapons unless Russia and China agreed to a halt in development. China is not a party to the treaty.

Peskov said President Vladimir Putin had repeatedly warned that the demise of the treaty would force Moscow to take specific military steps to protect its own security.

“Scrapping the provisions of the INF treaty forces Russia to take measures for its own security because what does scrapping the INF treaty mean?” said Peskov.

Kremlin spokesman Peskov said Putin had repeatedly warned that the demise of the treaty would force Moscow to take specific military steps to protect its own security.