Death of INF Treaty raises security risks

By formally quitting the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty on Friday the United States has cleared the way for it and Russia to reinforce their nuclear arsenals, raising the specter of a new arms race and increasing global security risks.

Given that the US, according to Russia, had developed new nuclear weapons and deployed about 200 nuclear missiles in Europe, including the MK-41 vertical launching system that can launch Tomahawk cruise missiles up to 2,400 kilometers and thus hit targets inside Russia, the risk of the INF Treaty being terminated was very high even before the US formally pulled out of it.

Of course, Washington said it was withdrawing from the INF Treaty because Moscow had violated it by developing 9M729 missiles.