USA accuses Russia of violating Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

Russia is violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), the American authorities claim. A representative of the US Administration reported this to ITAR-TASS on Monday.
“The USA came to a conclusion that the Russian Federation is violating its commitments within the INF,” he said. In official Washington’s view, this refers to the violation of “commitments not to obtain, not to produce and not to test a ground-launched cruise missile with a range between 500 km and 5.5 thousand km, or not to obtain or produce launching systems for this missile,” the US official specified.
According to the source, the American side considers this issue “as very serious”. “We are trying to discuss it with Russia for quite a while,” the source said.

Washington indeed expressed its concern over the possible problems with Moscow’s complying with the INF clauses in the past. Rose Gottemoeller, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security for the US State Department, confirmed this in May at a meeting with journalists. Then, she specified that the case in hand was Russia’s development of a ground-launched cruise missile.
According to the source, Washington “has already notified Russia about its conclusion”, which will be included in the annual report of the US State Department on the fulfillment of disarmament treaties.
“We are ready to discuss it immediately in a bilateral dialogue at a high level” with the aim to “getting Russia back to comply with INF”, the US official stressed.
He added that Obama’s Administration already informed about its current conclusions the Congress and foreign allies.
The INF treaty was signed by the USSR and the United States in 1987.