The briefing of Russia’s Foreign and Defense ministries with the display of the 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile, which according to the U.S. and NATO violates the terms of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), has not influenced the position of Washington and Brussels.
The U.S. embassy in Moscow already announced that Russian failed to provide enough transparency on the missile and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who flew to the talks and also, likely, to the US Department of State for instructions, said that holding a briefing on the missile was not sufficient and the missile should be, as they insist in the U.S., dismantled together with the launcher and production tooling.
What on earth for? Who let them speak the language of ultimatums? Contrary to what they say in the West, Russia did not violate the INF Treaty. Even “highly likely” this was not the case. Russia did not lose any war and no one has the right to act as the winner and to dictate to a sovereign and independent state, the Russian Federation, what it should do with its weapons aimed for protection of its national interests.
At the briefing, Lt. Gen. Mikhail Matveyevsky, chief of Russia’s military's missile and artillery forces, repeatedly proved that 9M79, a ground-launched cruise missile intended for the Iskander-M operational-tactical missile system, conforms to the limits of the INF Treaty.
It has a maximum range of 480 km (298 miles), which is 10 km (6 miles) less than the range of 9M728, the main missile of the system. 9M729 is 53 cm longer than the previous 9m728 model but the new missile's booster, cruising engine and fuel tank remain unchanged. Matveeevsky rejected the U.S. claim that the missile's increased length reflected a bigger fuel tank allowing a greater range, saying the size of the tank and the amount of fuel are identical to the older model. The tank cannot be expanded randomly in the field. Also the 9М729 missile has a heavier warhead and a guidance system that enhances its precision. All this accounts for the missile’s bigger case.
But neither the U.S. nor Germany and other NATO and EU states accepted these explanations. The representatives of these countries did not even attend the briefing and preferred to enter in polemics with the Russian military in a “by-correspondence” mode. “We don’t trust you and that is all.” As usual, they did not provide any specific proofs of the wrongness of Russian diplomats and top brass. As usual, they were not going to do it - everyone should take their word for it.
But if the heads of the member-states of NATO and the EU are dependent of the US as vassals and ready to unconditionally follow Washington and repeat as a mantra that Russia’s 9М729 missile violates the INF Treaty that does not mean that all rational people should do the same. Especially those, who are familiar with military equipment and understands what goals the policies of Washington pursue. Unfortunately, these policies are hypocritical and primitive to the limit, although they are concealed behind the democratic rhetoric.
How come that the US does not like the 9M729 missile? It is not because it violates the limits of the INF Treaty. Russian experts have repeatedly challenged such claims. Moreover, they repeatedly paid attention of the U.S. and their allies to the fact that it is the U.S. that violated the agreement: by testing their anti-missiles with target missiles flying on engines from Pershing-II missiles that were allegedly destroyed under the INF Treaty. Moreover, Washington has deployed the Aegis ballistic missile defense systems in Romania and is now deploying them in Poland. Its MK-41 launching system can be loaded with both the SM-3 antimissile and the Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles with the range prohibited under the INF Treaty. Let alone the drones carrying the missiles, which can also be regarded as land-based cruise missiles violating the INF Treaty. One of the reasons why the U.S. is trying to accuse Russia of violating the agreement is an attempt to divert the attention of the global community and experts from their own gross violations of this document. As the common folk say: shifting the blame on innocent.
But the case of 9M729 missile is not the main reason why the U.S. wants to withdraw from the INF Treaty. It is not even because the U.S. and Russia do not have medium or shorter range missiles, while China, India, Pakistan, Iran, North Korea and other states have them. Washington calls some of these countries as the states “with revisionist with geopolitical ambitions” and sees others as “rogue states”.
The argument that the U.S. Army is defenseless against the missiles of those states does not hold water. With the budget of $750 bln the Pentagon has the arsenal of weapons which is powerful enough to force many countries to lay down their arms. The U.S. showed it in 1999 in Yugoslavia, in 2003 in Iraq, in 2011 in Libya, and before that in 2001 in Afghanistan. Since 2012 it has been showing it Syria until now... Washington simply doesn’t need this agreement or any other treaties limiting American appetites. In order to abandon it, any reason will do, according to the well-known Aesop moral: “I won’t remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations.”(The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.)
Several days ago while presenting the U.S. new missile defense strategy Donald Trump made it clear that from now on, Washington will not recognize any restrictions on the development and deployment of its missile defenses. The word combination "missile defense" can cover anything - a strategic nuclear system, deployment of weapons in space, the creation of the Arctic command ... - the U.S. is not going to limit itself in doing it. According to Trump, the U.S. has so much money that it can afford everything that neither Moscow nor Beijing can afford. Personally, I can add to this statement that if this money is not enough, Washington will print more.
But no one is going to compete with the U.S in the arms race. Washington decided to withdraw from the INF Treaty and will do it not because they did not like the 9M729 missile, but in order to submit orders to its national military-industrial complex. Donald Trump promised this to American firms, when he was running for presidency. The sum of $60 mln for the development and tests of land-based cruise missiles with the parameters beyond the limits of the INF Treaty, was included in the Pentagon’s budget for 2019 long before Donald Trump delivered his angry rant about Russia’s violation of the agreement and threatened to withdraw from it.
This fact cannot be challenged. The ultimatum US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put forward to Russia at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on December 4 last year, obliging it to return to the implementation of the treaty in two months, was not an attempt to reach an agreement with Moscow. This was confirmed by his deputy on arms control and international security, U.S. Undersecretary of State Andrea Thompson. In January, at a meeting with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov she demanded the elimination of the 9M729 missile. She did not look for a compromise that would satisfy both Washington and Moscow, but immediately took the position of a prosecutor.
Russia has never accepted such a tone in bilateral relations from the U.S and it won’t. It is a far cry from the days when, at the request of Washington, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and then Foreign Minister of the USSR Eduard Shevardnadze included the OTR-23 Oka operational-tactical missile system, which had a missile with the range of up to 400 km, into the INF Treaty. The objections of the Soviet top brass, such as Defense Minister of the Soviet Union Sergey Sokolov, Chief of the General Staff Nikolai Ogarkov and his deputy Sergey Akhromeyev, as well as the General Designer of the Kolomna Design Bureau Sergei Nepobedimy, who argued that the Oka’s parameters did not fall under the treaty, were ignored. The best missile system at that time was destroyed. But today no one will be supine before the U.S.
The successor of the Oka missile system, the Iskander-M operational-tactical missile system will get the 9M729 cruise missile, as well as five other missiles. This missile was designed to deter the aggressive aspirations of the U.S. and NATO, which have already moved their troops closer to our borders. If you want us not to use this missile, than remove your units from our borders, dismantle missile defense systems in Romania and Poland, where you hide Tomahawks. In this case we will talk to you taking into account our mutual interests. But if you don’t - never mind. Russia never trades its security.
