​Pull-out from the INF Treaty pushes Russia toward preventive strike strategy

In the following we present our translation of an article from gazeta.ru on the chilling implications of the US’s exit from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty).
 
QUOTE:
 
“If the United States, under the leadership of Donald Trump, withdraws from the INF Treaty and applies medium-range missiles to Russia, the system will not be able to give an appropriate response. For this reason, Russia may turn to a strategy of a preventive nuclear strike.”
 
Americans discuss the possibility of a nuclear war with aplomb, mostly because Evangelicals, the largest voting bloc, believe implicitly that US war policy enjoys the blessings of the Almighty, particularly when the government is in harmony with the policies of Israel. It does not matter that Israel does not in any way meet the description in Ezekiel 37 upon which their “Christian” Zionism is based. And it matters not that this Israel is 60% “irreligious” or that its leadership grievously violates the Ten Commandments and the Levitican commandment to love one’s neighbour. Nor does it matter that the Old Testament God of Abraham had banished the Hebrews from their homeland for disobedience and this disobedience had never gone away. All that matters is that they believe in this Israel and many think the Holy Spirit has told them that Trump is somehow God’s man. When mere men base their theology on the feeling that the Holy Spirit is telling them things that clash with what the Bible clearly spells out, mischief is just around the corner.
 
But it is not just Evangelicals who feel invulnerable to atomic radiation. The bulk of Americans never learn of the dangers of backing out of long-standing arms control treaties. Very few are reading this and other blogs that inform them of what the Russians themselves are saying, and, unlike in real democracies or governments resembling them, US msm and politicians keep telling their subjects that the US is invincible so not to worry.
 
It doesn’t matter that all warlike theocracies of the past (such as the invading Mongols) have come to a bitter end. Because the US is different we are told. It is the Indispensable and Exceptional nation, like ancient Israel and has a special blessing from the Almighty. Thus it can toy with nuclear war all it wants and no harm will come to it. It therefore has no responsibility to its future generations to raise a finger to prevent a nuclear holocaust.
 
This lack of concern on the part of the American cult of Israel and the terminally brainwashed fits in perfectly with the evil designs of the US elites to wreak havoc in the world and even to court disaster. And yet these elites are mostly atheistic. It is a perfect symbiosis between two groups that could not be more different from each other, working in concert to create chaos, one intentionally and one in complete childish innocence.
 
It’s a perfect storm.
 
Meanwhile, commentaries like this one never get finished because news continues to break.
 
This just in:
 
Thanks to Trump’s exiting the INF treaty, Russia considers reopening a base in Cuba:
 
https://jamestown.org/program/moscow-set-to-re-activate-cuban-base-it-closed-in-2002-and-perhaps-open-new-ones/
 
Oops. Did someone forget that Russia also as options?

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BEGIN TRANSLATION
 
The “dead hand” withers: How Trump is depriving Russia of protection
 
Why Russia has recognized the futility of the nuclear "Dead Hand"
 
"Army" section 11-9-2018
 
The “Perimetr” system, also known as the “Dead Hand” system, which provides for a retaliatory nuclear strike on the enemy in the event of the country's leadership perishes, may become useless. If the United States, under the leadership of Donald Trump, withdraws from the INF Treaty and threatens Russia with medium-range missiles, the system will not be able to provide an appropriate response. For this reason, Russia may turn to the strategy of a preventive nuclear strike.
 
The ex-chief of the Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces (1994-1996), Colonel-General Viktor Yesin, said that the Russian system of automatic retaliatory nuclear attack “Perimetr,” known in the West as the “Dead Hand”, may be useless in the event of a military conflict.
 
According to Yesin, after the possible withdrawal of the United States from the Treaty on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), the Perimetr system may lose its effectiveness. He stressed that, although the system is functioning and has undergone modernization, the Russian side will be able to launch only those missiles that will “survive” after the “aggressor’s” first strike.
 
According to the former military leader, the United States will be able to deliver the first blow if they deploy intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Europe, where the INF currently does not allow the deployment of intermediate range missile. Such missiles will be able to destroy almost all of the missile forces in the European part of Russia, and the rest of the missiles will be intercepted by the missile defence system, Yesin concluded, who expressed his opinion in an interview with the newspaper Zvezda.
 
“Frankly, we do not yet have an effective response to US intermediate-range missiles in Europe.”
 
If the United States starts to deploy its missiles in Europe, we will have no other choice but to abandon the retaliatory strike doctrine and move on to the pre-emptive strike doctrine,” the retired military man emphasized.
 
The so-called "Perimetr" system, commonly known as the "Dead Hand", is a system of automated atomic weapons use, in case the country's leadership dies as a result of an enemy nuclear strike.
 
The decision to retaliate with the "Perimetr" is made on the basis of information from numerous sensors deployed in the country - seismic, radiation and atmospheric pressure, which determine the signs of nuclear explosions. In peacetime, this system can determine with almost 100% accuracy where in the world a nuclear device was detonated.
 
Following the decision by the Perimetr system to use strategic nuclear weapons (and this is actually a computerized solution), a command missile (or rockets) is launched with a special warhead, which in flight sends commands to launch all nuclear weapons carriers that have corresponding receivers at control points. In this case, intercontinental ballistic missiles and missiles from submarines are launched automatically.
 
At the same time, as experts note, the operating characteristics of the Perimetr system can only be judged speculatively at this time. There is no exact data on this.
 
There is some reason to assume that the Perimetr consists of command posts, command ballistic missiles, receiving devices and an autonomous command and control system (all terms are very, very conditional).
 
It is worth noting that in March 2018, one of the leading American experts on nuclear disarmament, Bruce Blair, warned that the Russian Perimetr (Dead Hand) system was still being improved.
 
Earlier, US President Donald Trump had said that Washington was withdrawing from the INF Treaty, which was signed in 1987 by the presidents of the USSR and the USA and is still considered the cornerstone of international security. It meant the destruction of the whole class of missiles of this type in Europe.
 
 
Russia's permanent representative to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, warned that in the event the Treaty on the Elimination of Short-Range and Medium-Range Missiles (INF) is dissolved, European countries "will face nightmares." According to Chizhov, quoted by RIA Novosti, this agreement is one of the main pillars for maintaining world peace.
 
“Europe ... will inevitably have to face again those nightmares that haunted it more than three decades ago,” said Chizhov. He added that in order to prevent such a development of events, Europe should take a decisive position on the treaty.

 
END OF TRANSLATION