Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty" in English language version.
The reason for this precision of timing… was a mystery to almost everyone in both governments… Only much later did it become known that the time had been selected as propitious by Nancy Reagan's astrologer
Russia furthermore claims that the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the MQ-9 Reaper and the MQ-4 violate the INF treaty, something the United States vehemently denies.
The Russians will inevitably claim that the United States violated the INF treaty first with Aegis Ashore missile defense sites, which use the Mk-41 vertical launch system. The Mk-41 is capable of launching the Tomahawk cruise missile—which could be argued is a violation of the treaty. "As for the Mk 41, it's kind of a [flimsy] argument," Lewis said. "The Mk-41 is a launcher, right? So... The treaty prohibits 'GLCM launchers' and 'GLBM launchers.' The Tomahawk is permitted because it is a SLCM. Moving the MK41 to land would be a problem if we then fired a Tomahawk off it. But we've only fired SAMs out of it and the treaty contains an exception for SAMs. Then the Tomahawk would be a GLCM. But it's not." The United States has offered to allow Moscow to inspect the Mk-41 sites to verify that they do not contain Tomahawks, however, the Russians have refused. "As a practical matter, the U.S. should—and in fact has—offered to let the Russians take a look and reassure themselves," Lewis said. "Russians refused."
The Western press has often treated the Russian claim that US missile defense installations have an offensive capability as rhetorical obfuscation. But publicly available information makes it clear that the US Aegis-based systems in Eastern Europe, if equipped with cruise missiles, would indeed violate the INF.
