Posted on 07/29/2014 10:21:14 AM PDT by McGruff
United States President Barack Obama has formally accused his Russian counterpart of violating a 1987 nuclear weapons treaty, the White House said on Tuesday.
Pres. Obama wrote Russia’s Vladimir Putin, White House press secretary John Earnest said during a routine briefing Tuesday afternoon, informing him that the US has determined that Russia has violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a pact signed by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev nearly 30 years ago.
Hours earlier on Monday evening, the New York Times reported that the Obama administration would accuse Russia of violating the agreement upon completion of a Department of State annual report on international compliance with arms control agreements.
“The United States has determined that the Russian Federation is in violation of its obligations under the INF treaty not to possess, produce or flight test a ground-launched cruise missile with a range capability of 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles,” the Times said the report would read.
On Tuesday, press secretary Earnest confirmed that report and said Pres. Obama had written Putin to notify him of the allegations.
“It is correct that the concerns that we’ve had about this have been raised with the Russian, it’s correct that our concerns have been discussed inside the administration for some time and it’s correct to assume that we’ve had conversations with our partners in the relevant committees in congress as well,” Earnest said, adding that adherence to the INF treaty is in the national security interests of US and its allies alike.
But after voicing those concerns to the Kremlin, Earnest said, Russia’s response has been “wholly unsatisfactory.”
"The United States is committed to the viability of the INF Treaty," a senior US official told AFP late Monday. "We encourage Russia to return to compliance with its obligations under the treaty and to eliminate any prohibited items in a verifiable manner."
According to the Times, US officials raised concerns about a potential treaty violation back in January, to which the State Dept. said the release of an eventual review would take into consideration. Three months later, Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, the top commander of NATO forces, told the paper that “A weapon capability that violates the INF, that is introduced into the greater European land mass, is absolutely a tool that will have to be dealt with."
The treaty, the Times reported this week, "helped seal the end of the Cold War and has been regarded as a cornerstone of American-Russian arms control efforts."
Yes, the Russians are still in possession of over 8000 nukes. Scary.
The only thing I take from this story is the White Hut becoming sensitive to the news on the illegal invasion, 0’care’s judicial losses, and talk about big losses in the midterms.
Strongly worded letter to follow.
How many treaties has the US violated by arming rebels to overthrow legal governments?
Putin just being flexable on his end. Meanwhile, Oturd is wed to his ideas of the early 80s.
No problem, just RESET the relationship on the power of your personality through the charm of Hillary Clinton.
That RESET button is going to be replaced by a LAUNCH button.
“Better clean out your old Cold War bunker. If you don’t have you might want to think about it.”
I guess that’s what they meant by “reset”.
Even funnier is that our geniuses mistranslated the word so it said overloaded/overcharged/scammed
Boy did Obama show up late to the party..this happened in January from what I heard and we are now in July
Our Tomahawks can carry small nukes, what makes them different than this class of cruise missiles? Is there a limit on how many Tomahawks we can have at a given moment? That wouldn't make sense to me so, I'm wondering if this is the kind of thing someone picked a convenient moment to split hairs over or a real and major change in the type of weapon they're testing.
” Russians are still in possession of over 8000 nukes”
It all works out, 0bama has cut our arsenal in half.
There, don’t you feel better now?
"White Hut accuses (John) Roberts of violating contract for War on Constitution."
So is this the move that starts the plan that obi will have more flexibility after the elections with our nukes?
"If you don't have you might want to think about it."
The Tomahawk is not a ground launched cruise missile, it is a sea launched cruise missile.
No offense, and if that's the all the difference then that's all the difference which isn't really anything but playing games IMHO.
Warheads age, stuff like Tomahawk is easily modified, but the people who get the photo op always have their photo.
Russia: Yeah, and...?
Sparky the Wunder Prez: And... well nothing, but I just wanted you to know that I noticed.
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