UFA. June 19 (Interfax) - The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) reduced the risk of nuclear war, and its dismantlement would return the situation to that existing 40 years ago, Deputy Russian Security Council Secretary Alexander Venediktov said.
"There is a real risk today that we might backslide by forty years again," Venediktov told journalists in Ufa on Wednesday.
"Let's recall what the INF Treaty started with. NATO, acting on Washington's instructions, adopted a new strategy in 1979, under which intermediate-range missiles targeted against the USSR were deployed in Europe. The risk of a nuclear war grew manifold. However, even in those conditions, the USSR and the U.S. had enough political will to conclude the INF Treaty, which was certainly a huge breakthrough in strengthening peace," he said.