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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) today introduced legislation to respond to Russia’s recently revealed violation of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

“Russia has become a rogue actor on the world stage, with no regard for upholding its international obligations and basic norms,” said Rubio. “Russia’s recent violation of a decades-old arms control treaty that was negotiated to eliminate an entire class of missiles that threatened our allies and deployed forces cannot go unanswered.

“This legislation is urgently needed to ensure that the United States is prepared for any outcome from this blatant treaty violation and that the administration adequately responds,” Rubio added.

The INF Treaty of 1987, signed by President Ronald Reagan, was the first – and only – arms control treaty that ever eliminated an entire class of weapons.

Cosponsors of the bill include Senators Jim Risch (R-ID) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT).

A PDF of the “Consequences for Russia’s Arms Control Violations Act of 2014” is available here. It would do the following:

1. Require that the missile defense sites planned for Poland and Romania are deployed on schedule and are capable of defending against these new Russian missiles.
2. Begin research and development, which is allowed under the INF treaty, of our own intermediate-range capabilities – which the Joint Chiefs state we need for our defense, especially against China and its hundreds of such missiles.

1. Impose sanctions and restrict nuclear and other cooperation with Russia until it comes back into compliance with the INF treaty.  

1. Restrict agreements on further reductions of U.S. Nuclear forces until Russia is in compliance with the INF Treaty and other bilateral nuclear agreements.