Earlier it was reported that the US Congress was preparing new bills that would cause Washington’s actual withdrawal from the treaty on medium-range and shorter-range missiles (INF).
Viktoriya Zhuravleva, Head of the Foreign and Domestic Politics Department of IMEMO (The Institute of World Economy and International Relations), in an interview with “Economics Today” noted that this is not official information, so it is very difficult to talk about what is true in this story and what is fiction.
“However, in the present conditions, any attempts by the United States in the person of the Congress to take any steps that are aimed at exacerbating relations with Russia are entirely expected. And in this respect, our bilateral security agreements are an excellent opportunity to hold such a line in Washington, “Zhuravleva states.
This is primarily an INF treaty, as well as the prospect of adopting a new package of an agreement on nuclear deterrence, the agreement of which has been stalled between Russia and the United States today.
“In the current situation that has developed in relations between Moscow and Washington, in fact, all negotiations on the defense sphere have been stalled. Against this background, any such news is, of course, extremely negative, “concludes Zhuravleva.
According to her, the main issue here is how all these problems will be further disrupted and whether Russia can find here some kind of compromise with the United States.
“It’s another matter that the situation today is such that the American side can gradually begin its withdrawal from this missile treaty,” Zhuravleva summarizes.
This is a very important issue, since such a decision by the US can disrupt the strategic balance in the modern world, which will cause an escalation not only in bilateral relations between Moscow and Washington, but also in all the vicissitudes of global politics. It’s unlikely that this circumstance is understood in the US and the question here is whether the US politicians have a framework in the context of such steps against Russia or they are acting here without regard for consequences.
“Relations between Russia and the United States are in a hysterical-agonistic state, since the” confrontation “with Moscow, which is actively pedaling in Washington today, left a qualitative imprint on them. At the same time, in the United States, the risks of such confrontation, where its limits and where such an American political establishment is ready to go to Russia, are very often not assessed, “Zhuravleva states.
It is clear that at the expert level this issue is being worked out in the United States and experts in Russia understand perfectly well that this pressure of Washington on Moscow should have borders, but so far these sentiments are not passed on to congressmen, and this process continues there.
“At the level of American congressmen, such fears do not play a big role in the domestic political struggle in the United States. There is no understanding that Washington needs to stop in a “power” dialogue with Moscow before any conflict situation that could actually lead to bad consequences, “concludes Zhuravleva.
Such sentiment in the US Congress is indeed a fact, but at the same time, one should not think that such sentiments will quickly become the new law of the United States.
Still, the way to the US is not close to such ideas, especially since these sentiments actually touch upon foreign policy issues, where the position of the US Department of State, the Pentagon, and the White House, which are in favor of preserving the INF Treaty, plays a very important role.
“For today, such news is just rhetoric and part of the hysterical anti-Russian campaign that is now taking place in the United States,” Zhuravleva summarizes.