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Moscow –
US National Security Advisor John Bolton has arrived in Moscow where he is expected to announce to the Russian authorities that America is considering withdrawing from a historic Cold War nuclear weapons treaty.
Bolton met on Monday with head of the Russian National Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, of the official Russian news agency, RIA Novosti reported, citing Patrushev's press office. Later, Bolton had dinner with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with the Russian Foreign Ministry on Twitter photographs of the American delegation sitting at a table in front of Russian officials.
Bolton spends two days in Moscow and is scheduled to meet Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu on Tuesday and then President Vladimir Putin. The trip should be dominated by the Trump administration's decision to withdraw from the Mid-Range Nuclear Forces or INF Treaty.
President Donald Trump announced Saturday that the United States would withdraw from the INF, saying Russia was violating the treaty. The announcement sparked fierce criticism from both arms control advocates and former US officials that the measure removed an important guarantee and destroyed a symbolic pillar of trust between Russia and the United States. United States by the time they are already locked in confrontation.
The FNI was signed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, at a time when the leaders of the two superpowers were seeking to put an end to decades of tension. The treaty bans the United States and Russia from deploying all nuclear and conventional ground-launched missiles with a range of 300 to 3,420 miles.
The agreement eliminated thousands of missiles and was hailed as a stepping stone towards the end of the cold war. But for several years now, the United States and Russia have accused of violating the agreement. Under the Obama administration, the United States claimed that Russia had ignored part of the deal by secretly developing and deploying a new cruise missile.
On Saturday, Trump cited violations when he said that the United States would now withdraw from the treaty.
"They have been violating it for many years and I do not know why President Obama did not negotiate or withdraw," Trump told the Nevada press.
"We will not let them violate a nuclear deal and make weapons and we are not allowed to do so.We are the ones who remained in agreement and we respected the agreement but Russia unfortunately did not respect the agreement. " so we will withdraw. "
Russia has long denied US accusations and responded by saying that an American missile defense system in Europe would also violate the treaty.
Since the announcement of Trump, Russian officials have criticized the withdrawal decision, saying it undermines the arms control system that governs relations between the two countries.
On Monday, as Bolton met Patrushev, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he would ask for more detailed explanations of why the US is abandoning the treaty and "categorically" denying Russia. Peskov warned that Russia should take steps to "restore equilibrium" if the US began developing weapons prohibited by the treaty.
Before meeting Bolton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the US had not yet triggered the six-month withdrawal mechanism set out in the treaty.
The Trump administration's withdrawal from the INF treaty is the first time the US has abandoned a major arms treaty since President George W. Bush unilaterally dropped the anti-ballistic missile treaty with Russia in 2002 .
The decision has been greeted by a host of critics from arms control advocates, as well as some former US officials, who believe that the withdrawal of the treaty frees Russia's hand while leaving little help for United States.
Members of Trump's Republican Party also expressed concern over the possibility of dismantling the decades-old international nuclear weapons control system, calling on the president to renegotiate rather than abandon the treaty. "I hope we will not cancel most of the nuclear arms control treaties we have put in place," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert told reporters Sunday. Corker. "I think it would be a big mistake."
Mikhail Gorbachev, who signed the INF with Reagan, condemned Trump's decision, saying on Sunday that "Washington has chosen the irresponsible way." Gorbachev said the Russian and American governments should always try to save the deal. "I think this train did not leave the station," RIA Novosti said.
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