Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called on the United States, which recently launched its withdrawal from the deal over Russia’s alleged violations, to engage in dialogue with Russia for the sake of preventing the global security destabilization.
“I regret that the tough domestic situation, which has been in place in the United States over the recent years, has in fact resulted in disruption of dialogue between our two countries on all topics, including the nuclear weapons. It is time to get over the difficulties between the [US] political parties and start a serious conversation. I am sure that Russia will be ready for it”, Gorbachev said in his column for Russian newspaper Vedomosti.
The United States has been claiming that the range of Russia’s 9M729 missile violates the treaty’s limits, but Moscow has denied the allegations, stressing that they were unsubstantiated. Russia, in turn, has stressed that US defense systems in Europe were equipped with launchers capable of firing cruise missiles at ranges prohibited under the INF Treaty.
The INF Treaty, which was signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987 and banned all ground-launched missiles with ranges of 310 to 3,400 miles (500 to 5,500 kilometers), has recently become another contentious point in the relationship between the United States and Russia. When Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed the treaty in Washington, DC, the US and Soviet Union were the world’s only countries with mature intermediate range nuclear technology.