Foreign Minister Lavrov: US withdrawal from INF treaty could lead to a fatal accident

Video from RT of Kalibr missiles launched from Russian warships in the Caspian Sea, targeting terrorists in Syria.
 
The following is our translation of an article from politpuzzle.ru, with commentary by Vince Dhimos. A while back, ex-head of Nativ, the Israeli agency charged with bringing Soviet Jews to Israel, explained in one of his frequent Russian TV appearances that Russia was not in fact violating the INF treaty as charged by the US. He explained that the missiles to which the US had objected were designed to be launched from submarines and ships. He mentioned in particular the Kalibr missiles that Russia had fired from warships in the Caspian Sea and pinpointed terrorists in Syria in October 2015. It was a tour de force in 2 main ways:
 
1) It showed the West – which had initially tried to downplay its capabilities and predicted it would fail – that its military was up to the task of defeating terror in the allied country;
 
and 2) it showed off a weapon that, had it been launched from the ground, would have constituted a violation of the INF treaty, which, however, only applied to ground-based missiles. The Russians know how to read.
 
Only the hide-bound West could have failed to applaud the feat – and, of course, it did not applaud, continuing to insist that Russia would fail, becoming bogged down as the US had done in Vietnam and Afghanistan. But it never happened, and, out of options in the juvenile war of words of its own making, the US came up with the idea of accusing Russia of violating the INF treaty, despite the facts.
 
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"The price of error will be fatal": Lavrov issued a warning to the US in the event of an arms race
 
24 Dec 2018
 
The political line of the United States, which is leading to an arms race, can have destructive consequences, says Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
 
Washington’s political line leading to an arms race with Russia could lead to a situation where “the cost of a mistake becomes fatal.” The corresponding warning was expressed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the commentary of RIA Novosti.
 
According to Lavrov, Moscow is forced to conclude that the United States and its allies, fixated on their political ambitions, are not ready to adapt to global realities that are changing, but not in their favour. This explains the desire of Americans using all their tools to restrain such processes, as a result of which aggression is increasingly manifested in foreign affairs...
 
“Confrontational pressure is on the rise, and channels of communication are frozen. Of particular concern are steps to break international agreements,” the minister noted.
 
In addition, the position of Washington, which carries out each of its actions with a focus on "power tools", inevitably is leading to a rapid imbalance of the global security architecture, and also contributing to an arms race. As a result of such steps, a situation may arise where the price of misunderstanding or error becomes fatal, Lavrov sums up.
 
Recall that on October 20, 2018, the head of the White House, Donald Trump, announced America’s intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, explaining that Russia allegedly did not comply with the terms of the international agreement. Moscow promised to take countermeasures. In early December, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered an ultimatum to the Russian Federation, stating that if after 60 days it did not begin to comply with the requirements of the INF Treaty, Washington would suspend its participation in the treaty.
 
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