A group of House Democrats Friday accused President Trump of being “too soft on Russia” and playing into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hands following the administration’s announcement it would pull out of a nuclear arms pact with Russia.
“By withdrawing from the [Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces] Treaty instead of making an honest, good-faith effort to collectively punish Russia for its treaty violations and bring it back into compliance, we are playing into President Putin’s hands,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said in a statement Friday.
Both the Obama and Trump administrations have said Russia has clearly violated the Cold War-era agreement that bans missiles with ranges of 310 miles to 3,400 miles, known as the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in 1987.
Although Russia has continued to deny that it is not in compliance, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Friday that Russia “brazenly disregarded” the treaty and that the U.S. will launch the formal withdrawal process on Saturday.
“Of course the Russians have been cheating on the INF treaty for years; the question is how we punish them for cheating,” Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., said in a statement. “The Trump approach is to reward them by withdrawing from the treaty ourselves. If a student cheats on a test, does the teacher suddenly decide the test doesn’t count? No, we should rally NATO, the main beneficiaries of this treaty, to condemn Russia. But our President has been too soft on Russia and too hard on NATO. He’s got it backwards.”
Smith also argued that NATO allies were being “ignored” by pulling out of the treaty, despite the fact that NATO allies issued a statement voicing their total support for the Trump administration’s decision.
“The Trump administration is needlessly ignoring the concerns of our allies and partners on an issue that should unify NATO, not divide it,” Smith said in a statement.
Pompeo notified the Kremlin in December that the U.S. would begin the six-month withdrawal process outlined in the treaty if Russia did not return to compliance. In the meantime, NATO allies have urged Russia to return to full compliance with the treaty to preserve the agreement.
[Opinion: NATO’s secretary general is wrong: The US must do more to counter Russian tactical nuclear weapons]
