Gorbachev Urges Russia, U.S. to Preserve INF Treaty

The Soviet Union’s last president yesterday urged Russia and the United States to maintain a 20-year-old treaty banning all medium-range nuclear missiles, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct . 26).

Mikhail Gorbachev distanced himself from Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials who have indicated that Moscow might withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty on grounds that it is outdated.

“All of these treaties constitute a system, a structure, that maintained a certain stability … but this is something that should continue to work,” said Gorbachev, who signed the pact in 1987 with then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan.  “It's not some kind of scrap and it's not some kind of old goods to be sold.”

He said that Russia and the United States share a “common duty” to keep the treaty in effect.

“Improvements can be made, but the preservation of this treaty is extremely important from a practical and a political standpoint,” Gorbachev said.  “If we start ruining treaties like this, this would end very badly” (Denise Lavoie, Associated Press/Google News, Dec. 5).

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