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.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/289ed728-bd2...0779e2340.html