The Russian defense Ministry has accused the US of violating the INF Treaty
United States in violation of the Treaty on the elimination of intermediate and shorter-range missiles (INF Treaty) develop and conduct flight tests of ballistic missiles with range from 500 to 5 thousand. this is stated in article of the head of Department of the Ministry of defense of the Russian Federation for control over execution of contracts Sergey Ryzhkov for the newspaper “Red star”.
“Undercover for the creation of new missile systems was the fact that supposedly all of them are nothing more than ballistic missiles-targets, and all such development is carried out only in the interests of development and testing of a global missile defense system,” wrote Mr Ryzhkov.
According to the representative of the Russian Ministry of defense, USA for development of elements of a missile defense system using missiles target, “simulating a broad range ballistic missiles, medium-range and shorter-range” — for example, Hera, MRT, Aries, LV-2, Storm, Storm 2, MRBM, etc. the Production of such missiles and the performance of their launches is prohibited by the INF Treaty, “as such tools in their tactical and technical characteristics, primarily on the basis of range, belong to the class of missiles and medium-range missiles,” said Sergei Ryzhkov.
In addition, according to him, in 2012-2013, the United States conducted tests of cruise missiles AGM-158B, the range of which is 1 thousand km These tests, according to Mr. Ryzhkov, “were a flagrant violation of the INF Treaty”. “When it was actually confirmed that the launchers land-based MK-41 capable of carrying out launches of cruise missiles, medium-range class “air—land”,” the military added.