Russia threatens to quit arms treaty

Russia threatened on Feb. 15 to pull out of a landmark nuclear arms control treaty unless the US backed away from plans to install its missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. Yury Baluyevsky, the Russian army chief of staff, said Moscow might unilaterally withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which forced the US and the Soviet Union to ban nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 310 to 3,400 miles. 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 US plans to extend its missile defense into central Europe. The Pentagon is preparing to start negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic about hosting missile interceptors and radars. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the Polish prime minister, expressed conditional support for participating in the system on Feb. 15. A senior Pentagon official said the US would resist the Russian move, which he said would have serious implications for US allies in Europe. The INF treaty includes the right for a party to withdraw with six months notice if extraordinary events jeopardize its supreme interests. The State Department said Russia had not formally notified the US of any move to abrogate the treaty. Baluyevsky's comments came days after Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, warned that US attempts to deploy part of its missile shield in Poland could spark a new arms race. Putin said the INF treaty was no longer in its interests because of the 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 defense system. Leonid Ivashov, a former senior Russian defense 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 cooperating on tactical missile defense for armies in the field, said a senior NATO diplomat.