Russia’s
alleged violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear
Forces Treaty (INF) are a “serious matter” and the US will continue
to press the issue with Moscow, said the State Department’s top nuclear
nonproliferation official. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and
International Security
Rose Gottemoeller told reporters in
Washington D.C., on Friday that the State Department has “serious compliance
concerns” with the Russians over its obligations to the INF, which reportedly
stem from Russia’s testing of a variant of a ground-launched cruise missile. Several
reports indicate that in addition to the unnamed land-based cruise missile,
Russian tests of the RS-26 Rubezeh ballistic missile also violated the INF. “I
can say, we continue to raise it at a high level and we will continue to do so
until our concerns are satisfied,” Gottemoeller said. The 1987 treaty bans the
US and Russia from testing or deploying missiles with ranges between 500 kilometers
and 5,000 kilometers. Gottemoeller said her office has been dealing with the
matter “for a while,” but sought to downplay the notion that the crisis in Ukraine has exacerbated the matter.
