FT.com / World / US & Canada - Russia threatens to quit arms treaty

FT.com / World / US & Canada - Russia threatens to quit arms treaty

Russia threatens to quit arms treaty
By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington, Neil Buckley in Moscow, Daniel Dombey in London and Jan Cienski in Warsaw

Published: February 15 2007 19:04 | Last updated: February 15 2007 19:04

Russia threatened on Thursday to pull out of a landmark nuclear arms control treaty unless the US backed away from plans to install its missile defence shield in Eastern Europe.

Yury Baluyevsky, the Russian army chief of staff, said Moscow might unilaterally withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty, which forced the US and the Soviet Union to ban nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500km.

There was “convincing evidence” for leaving the agreement because “many countries are developing and perfecting medium-range rockets”, he said.

But the general also explicitly linked Russia’s stance to the US’s plans to extend its missile defence into central Europe.

The Pentagon is preparing to start negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic about hosting missile interceptors and radars. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Polish prime minister, on Thursday expressed conditional support for participating in the system.

A senior Pentagon official said the US would “resist” the Russian move, which he said would have serious implications for American allies in Europe.

The INF treaty includes the right for a party to withdraw with six months’ notice if “extraordinary events ... jeopardised its supreme interests”. The State Department said Russia had not formally notified the US of any move to abrogate the treaty.

Gen Baluyevsky’s comments came days after Vladimir Putin, Russian president, warned that US attempts to deploy part of its missile shield in Poland could spark a new arms race.

Mr Putin said the INF treaty was no longer in its interests because of proliferation of short and medium-range missiles. He rejected US assertions that the system was aimed at countries such as North Korea and Iran, not at Russia.

The US official said Russia had privately told the US it wanted medium-range missiles to counter Iranian threats while arguing publicly that the lack of Iranian missiles meant the US did not need a defence system.

Col-Gen Leonid Ivashov, a former senior Russian defence official, said Moscow had “every reason” to pull out of the treaty. He pointed to the US withdrawal in 2002 from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

Yuri Solomonov, director of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, which manufactures missiles, told Itar-Tass news agency Russia was ready to resume production of medium-range ballistic missiles.

Nato officials said Russia intended to pressure Poland and the Czech Republic to reject US plans, but added that what Moscow really wanted was to be included in a European-wide anti-missile system.

“We are already talking to the Russians about co-operating on tactical missile defence for armies in the field,” said a senior Nato diplomat.



Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007