Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
8/1/2014
As the State Department released its annual compliance report this week, formally accusing Russia of violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Congressional lawmakers urged the Obama Administration to take action against Moscow. “We must take action to hold Russia accountable and bring Russia back into compliance with the treaty,” Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, said in a statement. “This finding also highlights the importance of effective verification measures to ensure that cheating can be detected in a timely manner.”
The findings in the compliance report, which were first revealed by the New York Times July 28 and publicly confirmed by the State Department July 29, contain few details about the actual violations, which center on the R-500 ground-based cruise missile, but are succinct in its findings. “The United States has determined that the Russian Federation is in violation of its obligations under the I.N.F. treaty not to possess, produce or flight test a ground-launched cruise missile (GLCM) with a range capability of 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles,” the compliance report said.
Russia Responds With its Own Accusations
Russia has not deployed the system in question, though reports this week suggested that Moscow could be on the verge of doing so. The Administration is likely to press Russia to address the violation, perhaps through promising to keep the cruise missile out of its active forces or by destroying it. Russia has denied that is in violation of the treaty, lobbing its own accusations that the U.S. has violated the treaty because the missile targets it uses in tests of its missile defense system violate the agreement.
The report notes that the U.S. raised concerns with Russia on “repeated occasions” in 2013 “in an effort to resolve U.S. concerns,” and it says that the “United States will continue to pursue resolution of U.S. concerns with Russia.” President Obama informed Russian President Vladimir Putin of the violation in a July 28 letter after Secretary of State John Kerry broached the subject with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov July 27. “It is fair for you to conclude that their response to our concerns was wholly unsatisfactory,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
Republicans Push for Strong Response from White House
Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee criticized the Obama Administration for delaying the release of the compliance report, which was due in April. “Only after almost two years of the Congress pushing him has the president finally said what was plain to see: Russia is cheating on its agreements with the United States, putting the United States and its allies in East Asia and Europe at risk,” House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said. Language drafted by Rogers in the FY 2015 Defense Authorization Act calls for Russia to get rid of the missiles in violation of the treaty. “Instead of holding Russia accountable, the president closed his eyes, made excuses, and—through his inaction—encouraged Putin to drag us into a second cold war,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said in a statement. “With the world sliding further in chaos, we must ask the obvious question. What other truths is the President not facing?”
Briefed on the violations, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called on Russia to address the issues. “The Treaty has a special place in history, as it required the verifiable elimination of an entire class of missiles possessed by the United States and the Soviet Union,” he said. “It remains a key element of Euro-Atlantic security—one that benefits our mutual security and must be preserved. Russia should work constructively to resolve this critical Treaty issue and preserve the viability of the INF Treaty by returning to full compliance in a verifiable manner. Continuing to uphold the Treaty strengthens the security of all, including Russia.”
Experts: Don’t Withdraw From Treaty
A trio of experts testifying at a House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing last month suggested that the United States should not withdraw from the treaty in response to the violations. Such a move would “actually be welcomed in Moscow,” said Stephen Rademaker, the National Security Project Advisor for the Bipartisan Policy Center. “We shouldn’t make it any easier for them. We should force them to take the onus of that, take the international and diplomatic hit for pulling out of the treaty.”
Steven Pifer, director of the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative at the Brookings Institution, said the United States should push its allies to pressure Russia about the violations. “The goal should be to multi-lateralize the issue,” he said. “That is, have other countries, the ones that are most directly threatened … to press Moscow on the question. Washington should strive to make this not just a U.S.-Russia issue but a German-Russia, a Chinese-Russian, an Italian-Russian issue as well.”
