Putin, seeing success of weakening US and Europe, is heating up the New Cold War
This is what happens when Americans get scammed into turning to Oval Office over to an unqualified, inept, ignorant, “trust my gut” buffoon who surrounds himself with doctrinaire hawkish FOX News celebrities:
Vladimir Putin has threatened that Russia will develop new missiles banned by the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty if the US exits the pact and pursues an arms buildup of its own.
The Russian president’s remarks came one day after the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said Moscow was in “material breach” of the cold war-era treaty and issued a 60-day ultimatum for Russia to correct the alleged violations. Otherwise, he said, the US would quit the 1987 accord, considered a milestone in reducing the threat of a nuclear war in Europe.
In Moscow on Wednesday, Putin told journalists the US had provided “no evidence” of Russian violations, and threatened an arms race if the US sought to develop new medium-range missiles after exiting the treaty.
“Apparently, our American partners believe that the situation has changed so drastically that the US should also have such weapons,” Putin said in remarks carried by the Interfax news service. “What response is our side to give? A simple one: then we’ll do the same.”
The arms treaty, signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, banned ground-launched missiles with a range between 500-5,500km. The US and Nato have said that tests of a new Russian cruise missile, designated 9M729, violate the treaty.
The US effort to exit the treaty was spearheaded by John Bolton, Donald Trump’s hawkish national security adviser.
According to a leaked memo published by the Washington Post, Bolton has ordered the Pentagon to “develop and deploy ground-launched missiles at the earliest possible date”.
Meanwhile, Putin is making expansionist moves on both the land and naval front.
Russia and Ukraine have been fighting for several years on land, but the two clashed at sea recently. How likely is this maritime conflict to escalate?
Maritime disputes feature prominently in global politics. China’s maritime conflicts with neighboring states over the Senkaku/Diaoyu, Spratly, Paracels and other small islands and reefs have generated over a dozen militarized clashes at sea since 1991. Confrontations in the Kerch Strait between Russia and Ukraine on Nov. 25 and the imposition of limited martial law in Ukraine create similar concerns about escalation of the situation to war.
There are several diplomatic issues at stake in the Russia-Ukraine relationship, and understanding these points of contention can help clarify the escalation risks. Our research shows that maritime disputes connected to territorial and identity issues face higher risks of war.
Between Brexit and the Trump presidency, Putin hav succeeded in weakening the USA and the European Union well beyond what he had likely expected. Removing Trump and his loyalist imbeciles from office at the earliest opportunity would be a good start toward reversing Putin’s progress and aborting his good fortune.