By Jaime Ortega.
The United States has concluded that Russia violated the treaty of 1987, which banned the development and deployment of medium-range nuclear missiles based on land, which would be the most serious breach of an obligation of disarmament by that country after the cold war.
As revealed by the newspaper The New York Times, citing as sources to senior U.S. officials, President Barack Obama has sent a letter to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to warn and convey the protest.
The State Department is scheduled to release on Tuesday its annual report on compliance with international disarmament treaties which shall include the realization that Russia violated the so-called Treaty INF (Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty).
The revelation represents a tension in relations between the U.S. and Russia member, faced for months by the asylum granted by Moscow to ex-contrabandist of the National Security Agency (NSA), Edward J. Snowden, and Russian support Ukrainian separatists.
According to sources cited by the newspaper, the Obama administration concluded in late 2011 that Russia was not complying with the disarmament treaty, considered one of the historic agreements which ended the Cold War, as Moscow had already tested cruise missiles in 2008.
In May 2013, senior officials from the State Department reported to Russian suspicions, but only in recent months the Obama Administration was certain that the trials were a serious violation of the obligations under the treaty.
“The U.S. has determined that the Russian Federation violated its obligations under the INF Treaty to produce or perform tests cruise missile launched from earth (GLCM), with a capacity range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers, and possess and produce such missiles launchers, “says the report obtained by the Times.
In the letter to Putin, the U.S. President expressed his interest to hold a high-level dialogue with Russian officials aimed at preserving the treaty of 1987 and discuss measures that Moscow that should comply with the terms of the agreement. According to sources, the same message was conveyed by the Secretary of State, John Kerry, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in a telephone call.
The INF Treaty was signed in Washington in December 1987 by then U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, and is considered the cornerstone of disarmament agreements between the two superpowers.
