MOSCOW — Russia’s Foreign Ministry released a report Saturday accusing the United States of violating dozens of provisions of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons treaties going back a decade, in what seems to be a retort to U.S. critics of a new arms treaty, who have been accusing Russia of violating past agreements.
The 10-page report detailed lapses in security at Los Alamos National Laboratories, cited reports on security threats posed by private laboratories conducting research on potential military pathogens and noted what it called failures by the U.S. to provide telemetry on test missile launchings.
It also rekindled complaints that the U.S. and other NATO nations had disregarded a 1997 agreement with Russia limiting the deployment of forces in former Eastern Bloc countries and noted that the American missile defense program employed decoy rockets seemingly belonging to a class of missiles banned under a treaty on intermediate-range nuclear weapons.
The United States issued a terse comment rejecting Moscow’s claims. The New York Times
New treaty stalls
The Senate is considering ratification of a new nuclear weapons treaty, called New START, signed a year ago by President Barack Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, but a Senate committee has delayed a vote until September. Ratification approval requires two-thirds approval,which means at least eight Republicans must vote for the pact.
The treaty bars the United States and Russia from deploying more than 1,550 strategic warheads and 70 launchers each.
