Simultaneous Yukos Verdict, INF Treaty Rhetoric No Coincidence

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Simultaneous Yukos Verdict, INF Treaty Rhetoric No Coincidence – Russia’s EU Envoy

RIA Novosti, PUBLISHED 05.08.2014

The court ruling in the Hague over the Yukos shareholders case and simultaneous complaints of Moscow, allegedly breaching the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty are not a coincidence, Russia’s EU envoy Vladimir Chizhov said on Friday.

“It’s difficult to shake off the feeling that allegations on the INF Treaty, the Yukos [court] case, and all these other ‘goodies in the bag’ are not just a coincidence,” Chizhov said during a live internet conference between Moscow and Brussels.

The Russian envoy said the issue of adhering to the INF Treaty is not a new issue, but “an object for discussion with the US over a period of time, and we have our own complaints toward the US that do not adhere to the many parameters of this agreement.”

In July, a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) awarded $2.6 billion compensation to shareholders of Yukos, a defunct Russian oil company that went bankrupt in 2006. The Russian Justice Ministry said on Thursday that the ruling was neither fair, nor impartial.

Moscow also dismissed US accusations claiming Moscow had violated its obligations under the INF Treaty. Russian authorities expressed their own complaints about US compliance with the treaty in light of Washington’s plans to deploy Mark 41 vertical launching systems in Poland and Romania.

The INF was signed back in 1987 by the United States and the Soviet Union to prevent the use of nuclear and conventional missiles with an intermediate range, defined as 500 to 5,000 kilometers (310 to 3,100 miles).

Topics: Russia

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