At a meeting on Thursday, June 13, the Committee on International Affairs supported the draft federal law “On the suspension by the Russian Federation of the Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles”. It was introduced by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Review of the first reading of the draft law at the plenary meeting of the State Duma is scheduled for June 18.
The Chairman of the Committee Leonid Slutskiy
Leonid Eduardovich
reminded at the meeting that the United States was the first who unilaterally decided to suspend its obligations under the Treaty.
“If the INF Treaty, unfortunately, ceases to exist, no matter whether de jure or de facto, in this case, the extension of the New START Treaty in 2021 will be extremely difficult. And it would be no exaggeration to say that this means the collapse of that stability, which has been designed by Soviet, then by Russian, and American experts for decades. Of course, this situation threatens the peaceful, secure, stable international architecture of the 21st century,” the parliamentarian stressed.
Earlier, the draft law was supported by two committees-contributors: Committee on Security and Corruption Control and Committee on Defense.
The treaty was signed between the two states on December 8, 1987, in Washington. On February 2, 2019, the United States of America unilaterally suspended the fulfillment of its obligations under the Treaty.
In accordance with the draft law, the President of the Russian Federation is entitled to decide on the renewal of the Treaty. The law will come into force on the date of its official publication.
