Mikhail Gorbachev decries US nuclear stance as ‘a dire threat to peace’
Donald Trump withdrawing from a nuclear treaty signed in 1987 moves the former Soviet-era leader to say a nuclear war ‘cannot be ruled out’
Moscow — On Friday, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, denounced a US decision to leave an arms control treaty that helped end the Cold War, saying it heralded a new arms race which increased the risk of nuclear conflict. US President Donald Trump has said Washington plans to quit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan signed in 1987. The pact eliminated all short- and intermediate-range land-based nuclear and conventional missiles held by both countries in Europe. Gorbachev, in a column for the New York Times newspaper, said the US move was “a dire threat to peace” that he still hoped might be reversed through negotiations. “I am being asked whether I feel bitter watching the demise of what I worked so hard to achieve. But this is not a personal matter. Much more is at stake,” he wrote. “A new arms race has been announced.” Washington has cited Russia’s alleged violation of the treaty as its reason for leaving it, a charge Mosc...
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