The US Department of State released its 2010 Treaty Compliance Report last July 28 which has sparked some doubts about Russia’s compliance with international agreements on chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
“The report addresses US compliance with arms control agreements, compliance by Russia and other successor states of the Soviet Union with treaties and agreements concluded bilaterally with the Soviet Union, compliance by other countries that are parties to multilateral agreements with the United States, and compliance with commitments made less formally but that bear directly upon arms control, nonproliferation, or disarmament issues” according to the overview of the report.
Following this line was a shortlist of all important issues that said to have arisen from the last compliance report which was released 2005. The first on the list was the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) wherein Russia is told to have “suspended” implementation of its CFE Treaty obligations in December 2007. According to the report, Russia’s “suspension” is not justified under customary international law under the circumstances cited by Russia.
This report was slammed by the Russian foreign ministry as biased and without proof. But now that this report has started to raise arguments and doubts that Russia has been violating nonproliferation treaties, this could somehow stain ties with Russia and its allies. But why would the State Department release such report at this time when Russia seems to take part to many treaties with US and other allies? Can Russia be really violating some treaties?
