Two Years

source: Agence France Presse 05.02.2019

translation: doxa-louise

RUSSIA GIVING ITSELF TWO YEARS TO DEVELOP NEW MISSILE

MOSCOW | Russia gave itself two years Tuesday to develop a new kind of 

land-based missile following the suspension by Washington and Moscow of the nuclear 

disarmament treaty INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces), leading to fears of a new 

arms race.

With the suspension of adhesion to this crucial treaty (announced Friday by Washington and the day after by Moscow) the two rival powers are thus free to develop land-based missiles with a range between 500 and 5500 kms, up until then forbidden by the document.

The signature of this treaty at the end of the Cold War, in 1987, had ended the euromissile crisis caused at the deployment of the soviet SS-20 with nuclear warheads aimed at Western capital 

cities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned they might adapt intermediate-range machines up until then deployed from the sea or airborne (as permitted by the INF treaty) so that they could also be used from the ground if ever America quit the treaty.

Without any waste of time, the Russian Defense Minister, Sergueï Choïgou

made public Tuesday his intention: it will be the Kalibr system, used for the first time 

operationally by Russia in the autumn of 2015, which will be adapted in a land-based 

variant with a 2019-2020 target delivery.

‘During this time, we must also build a long-range land-based missile system’. added 

Mr Choïgou, happy to see the Kalibr had ‘proven itself in Syria’.

Moscow had for the first time on October 7 2015 launched a salvo of 26 missiles from 

a cruise ship in the Caspian Sea to hit the ground held by Syrian rebels at 1500 kilometers 

from there. Up until then a mere prototype, this equivalent to the american Tomahawks, 

thus has a radius of action that could cover all of Europe.

‘Unbeatable’ Arms

‘We thus find ourselves near to a new arms race’, remarked to the

AFP Konstantin Makienko, pointing out that the conversion of the Kalibr to land-based 

missiles would be quick.

According to Mr Choïgou, the United States are also at work ‘actively for

the creation of a land-based missile with a range superior to 500 kms’, thus the reason 

why ‘ the Russian President has ordered our taking reciprocal action’. 

Already the United States and russian are accusing each other of violating the terms of t

he INF. Washington points to the Russian missile system 9M729, while Moscow complains o

f the american antimissile defense system Aegis Ashore, used in Poland and Romania.

The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergueï Lavrov raised concern Tuesday about the acquisition 

by Japan of this intercept system.

Vladimir Putin had unveiled in March 2018 new armed capacities that are ‘unbeatable’ developed 

by his country, of which a new generation of hypersonic missiles, called Avangard, where trials 

last December attested to a range of 4000 kms according to the Kremlin.

The new American nuclear posture, made public in 2018, for its part calls for the arrival a 

new less powerful  nuclear missile or a cruise missile that would transgress the terms of the INF treaty.

The Russian ministry of defense had accused Saturday the United States of having made the 

decision to abandon this treaty as early as 2017 by initiating ‘preparations’ for the production 

of new missiles.

Russia has often accused the United States of trying to break existing treaties to achieve its ‘economic exhaustion’ through  ‘a new arms race’, all the while stating it wants no part of.

On the heels of the suspension of the INF treaty, the future of the START (Strategic Arms 

Reduction) treaty for the reduction of nuclear arsenals, coming to term in two years’ time, 

is also in question. Friday, the Russian vice-minister for Foreign Affairs, Sergueï Riabkov 

stated it might well ‘simply expire on February 5, 2021 without prolongation’.

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2019/02/05/russie