Russia violated arms control treaty

The United States has accused Russia of testing a ground based cruise missile system in direct contravention to the Intermediate-nuclear Forces Treaty.

The New York Times reports that the United States' finding on the matter will be made public with the release of an annual State Department assessment of who does and does not abide by the laws of international arms control.

The portion of the report about Russia will read in part, "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 testing of mobile, ground based cruise missiles with these operational ranges was banned explicitly in the I.N.F. treat which was signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev December 8, 1987.

The Obama administration contends such testing began as early as 2008, according to the Times. In 2011, it was determined that such tests were failures to comply by the I.N.F. treaty. In January 2014, American officials told their allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, those most directly threatened by such arms, that Russia was indeed failing to fulfill its obligations as outlined in the I.N.F. treaty.

At that time in 2014, the United States said that the matter was under investigation, and it was not ready to formally declare the testing a violation of the treaty. The timing of the United States' announcement, given the matter has been known about for at least three years, suggests that the United States has taken a harder line on the issue as a way of putting indirect pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This decision most probably stems from Putin's recent actions in Ukraine, such as annexing the Crimean Peninsula and arming pro-Russian separatists. There have also been suggestions that Russian forces are firing on Ukrainian military positions from within Russian territory.