Are U.S. - Russian Arms Control Agreements Dead?

Russian servicemen equip an Iskander tactical missile system at the Army-2015 international military-technical forum in Kubinka, outside Moscow, in 2015.

Radio Free Europe: With Fraying U.S.-Russian Ties Comes Fraying Arms Control

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Congress is moving decisively to start dismantling some of the bedrock agreements of U.S.-Russian arms control, reflecting the dangerous state of relations between Washington and Moscow and raising the specter of a new arms race.

In a series of measures attached to the proposed $696 billion defense budget for 2018, Republican-led lawmakers have taken aim at the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, as well as the Open Skies and even New START treaties.

All three are widely considered important cornerstones of stability for global arms control, and the measures' likely passage signals a sharp break from years of U.S. policy.

"It would deal a major blow to the U.S.-Russia arms-control architecture, which is already under significant strain," says Kingston Reif, an analyst with the Arms Control Association, a Washington research group.

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WNU Editor: If Congress moves to dismantle the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, as well as the Open Skies and even New START treaties .... then yes .... arms control as we have known it for the past few decades and that has kept the peace is now dead.