March 1, 2006
The Scotsman
A Russian general has warned Russia might consider opting out of a US-Soviet arms treaty that scrapped intermediate range missiles, a newspaper has reported.
The daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted Gen. Vladimir Vasilenko, the head of the Defence Ministry's research institute, as saying that Russia could consider the redeployment of intermediate range missiles which were scrapped under a landmark treaty signed in 1987 by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Intermediate-Range and Short-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, known as INF Treaty, banned production and deployment of medium-range missiles, such as Soviet SS-20 and US Pershing 2, and required that both nations dismantle them.
The missiles deployed in the early 1980s were capable of striking targets within the European continent and became a major destabilising factor.
Vasilenko was quoted by Nezavisimaya Gazeta as saying that now "the deployment of land-based intermediate range missiles could be considered as of the additional ways of ensuring national security."
© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006
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