Arms Control
Russia and China are right to condemn the testing this week of an INF-busting new missile by the US. Washington is brazenly jeopardizing global security under the usual cynical guise of “defense”.
Washington’s withdrawal from the INF Treaty is just the latest move against Russia that will serve to intensify an arms race on the European continent that is already underway. It may also force Russia to take things to the next level.
Russia is just Russia. There is no feeling in Moscow that Russia must take the lead any place but Russia itself. One of the reasons why Putin is always talking about the independence of nation states is that he remembers the exceptionalist past and knows that it led to a dead end.
Trump appears unwilling to go down in history as the president responsible for kicking off nuclear Armageddon. But the deep state in control of US politics would surely be able to place into office someone who would advance the final justification for a headlong confrontation with Moscow and Beijing.
