Washington spoke about the placement of rockets by Russia contrary to the contract with the United States

Russia "secretly" posted new cruise missiles contrary to the agreement signed between Moscow and Washington in 1987. The presidential administration was told about this New York Times.

The administration explained that Russia has two battalions of “prohibited” missiles. One of them is located at the Kapustin Yar training ground (Astrakhan region). The second in December 2016 was transferred from the landfill to the operational base. The source did not specify its location.

“This step is a serious problem for the president [US Donald] Trump, who promised to improve relations with the President of [Russia] Vladimir Putin and seek future agreements on disarmament,” the interlocutor of the newspaper said.

The publication recalled that in 2014 the administration of the ex-president of the United States Barack Obama spoke of Russia's testing Russia and urged it not to violate the contract. Moscow, in turn, ignored these signals and continued to deploy a “completely working” battalion.

Earlier, the American military said that the SSC-X-8 missiles are included in Russian battalions. Now we are talking about SSC-8. The absence of the letter “X” according to the classification of NATO, explained The New York Times, means the transition of the rocket from the development stage to the functioning mode.

Battalions consist of four mobile launchers and a “large” number of missiles. The newspaper emphasized that outwardly the equipment resembles launchers for Iskander missiles, the use of which does not contradict the international treaty.

Previously, Trump said that in order to lift sanctions from Russia, it is necessary to conclude a nuclear disarmament transaction. The president noted that he wants a “significant reduction” of nuclear weapons in the USA and Russia.

Later, a telephone conversation was held between the leaders of the two countries. Reuters sources reported that during the conversation, Trump criticized the agreement signed in 2010 on a reduction in strategic offensive weapons. First, in response to Putin’s request to extend this agreement, he interrupted the conversation to clarify what the essence of the document is. Then, as the agency emphasized, the American leader called the agreement “one of the poor transactions of the Obama administration” and concluded that the contract is beneficial primarily to Moscow.