Bolton faces Moscow’s ire on nuclear pact withdrawal
Kremlin denies violating 31-year-old INF treaty
MOSCOW — National security adviser John Bolton held firm Tuesday to President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States would withdraw from a landmark arms control treaty in place since the Soviet era.
Bolton said the United States would present “in due course” an official notice leaving the treaty limiting intermediaterange nuclear weapons. He also echoed Trump’s assertions that Russia is violating the pact, suggesting that no progress was made to ease the impasse during Bolton’s two days of talks with top Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin.
Bolton’s comments seemed sure to disappoint Germany and other U.S. allies in Europe that have urged Washington to work to overcome disputes with Russia rather than walking away from the treaty entirely.
The Kremlin denies any violations and says scrapping the 31-yearold Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, would be a dangerous development that could spark a new arms race.
“The American position is that Russia is in violation,” Bolton said at a news conference. “Russia’s position is that they are not in violation. So one has to ask how to ask the Russians to come back into compliance with something they don’t think they’re violating.”
President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty in 1987, leading to the elimination of an entire category of nuclear missiles and the removal of more than 2,500 of them from installations across Europe.