Vladimir Putin introduced a bill on the suspension of the INF Treaty in the State Duma. This bill is very important, so it'll be considered quickly. The first reading is scheduled for June 18th. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov will present the bill. By the way, he participated in the negotiations on the INF Treaty.
Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the State Duma: "Dear colleagues, the Council of the State Duma decided to send out the bill before June 10th. The Committee on International Affairs is the executive committee. Two committees are appointed as co-executive ones for that bill. They're the Committee on Defense and the Committee on Security. And we proposed that this bill be considered a priority and addressed the first work day of the State Duma on June 18th".
After the bill is adopted by the State Duma, it'll be submitted to the Federation Council. The upper chamber has already promised to consider it promptly. It's also reported that its ratification won't require any additional budget expenditures. At the same time, we should note that from the bill's text, it can be inferred and it's important to note that the president has the right to renew the treaty if he thinks it's appropriate. Chairwoman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko told us about that.
Valentina Matvienko, Chairwoman of the Federation Council: "A political decision was made. I think that it's absolutely right and justified in this situation. And the relevant bill on the suspension of Russia's participation in the INF Treaty is being introduced in the State Duma. Otherwise, we'd be in unequal conditions. And this gives us the right to develop such weapons which will promote Russia's national interests and the interests of its national security so that we wouldn't fall behind if our partners move in a different way in that direction. The bill reserves the right to renew participation in the treaty to the president in case our partners choose to renew performing their obligations within the framework of the treaty. As soon as the State Duma considers the bill, the Federation Council will undoubtedly support that decision. It wasn't our choice. But in the conditions we were set in, we have to react like this".
According to the Chair of the Committee of the Federation Council on Foreign Affairs Konstantin Kosachev, the bill can be adopted in August.
Konstantin Kosachev, Chair of the Committee of the Federation Council on Foreign Affairs: "I'm sure that this bill will have the vast majority of the votes in the State Duma and will be approved by the Federation Council as a federal law simply because it promotes the national interests of Russia in this difficult situation for sure. It's a forced response of Russia to the U.S.'s actions. Firstly, there was a unilateral breach of its obligations under that treaty by the U.S. Secondly, there was unilateral destruction of that treaty through the expressed intent to withdraw from it by this August".
Let me remind you that in October of 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Washington will withdraw from the INF Treaty because they claimed that Moscow doesn't fulfill its obligations. As always, they didn't present any evidence as to when and where it breached the treaty. The American side doesn't seem to care about such details. But State Secretary Mike Pompeo gave Moscow two months to find some sort of solution. Ideally, Moscow was supposed to discontinue using the 9M729 missile, whose range was in the breach of the treaty, according to Washington. The claim was completely unjustified. The missile wasn't designed and tested for a range that exceeded the limits that were set. Moreover, the Defense Ministry organized a demonstration of the missile that has apparently frightened the U.S. Unfortunately, no representatives from the U.S. actually attended. Wouldn't want to burst that myth bubble, I suppose. After that, Vladimir Putin called upon the Russian MFA and the Defense Ministry not to initiate any negotiations on that issue anymore.
Viktor Murakhovsky, editor-in-chief Arsenal Otechestva magazine: "They use a formal excuse only, claiming that Russia violates the treaty, to use intermediate-range missiles aimed against China. They don't hide it. They specify it in their papers on military planning. The head of a U.S. weapons development unit, speaking at a U.S. Department of Defense event in Honolulu, said that they've been developing intermediate-range hypersonic missile since 2012".
Thus, with a simple flick of the White House's wrist, the one of a kind international treaty that ensured global security turned into a document which has no value but a historical one. Let me remind you that it was signed in 1987. The U.S.S.R. and the U.S. then undertook to destroy all of the ballistic and cruise land-based missile systems which had a specified range and not to make, test, or deploy them in the future.
