What year is this???
In a move straight out of the Cold War, Russia has positioned a spy ship in the waters off the coast of Delaware and carried out flights near a U.S. Navy warship.
They also deployed a cruise missile, in violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
Donald Trump‘s administration apparently doesn’t see a connection between the events, but then again with his team’s apparent ties to Russia, would they really tell us if they did??
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The U.S. State Department, however, is concerned. Spokesman Mark Toner said in an official statement on Tuesday:
“The Russian Federation remains in violation of its INF Treaty obligations not to possess, produce or flight-test a ground-launched cruise missile with a range capability of 500 to 5,500 kilometers, or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles.
We have made very clear our concerns about Russia’s violation, the risks it poses to European and Asian security, and our strong interest in returning Russia to compliance with the treaty.”
This scary move by Vladimir Putin comes amid the administration’s first big scandal (the first they’re facing consequences for anyway) in which Michael Flynn resigned as National Security Adviser after it came out he illegally gave Russia information as a private citizen during the transition.
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All this is leading even Republicans to call for a deeper investigation into how closely Trump is tied to Russia.
Per VICE, Senate Majority Whip (and Senate Intelligence Committee member) John Cornyn told reporters he thought an investigation should be carried out. Fellow committee member Roy Blunt, the Republican Senator from Missouri, said America “needs” the investigation:
“The Senate Intelligence Committee, again that I serve on, has been given the principal responsibility to look into this, and I think that we should look into it exhaustively so that at the end of this process, nobody wonders whether there was a stone left unturned, and shouldn’t reach conclusions before you have the information that you need to have to make those conclusions.”
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham told CNN:
“I want to know, did Gen. Flynn do this by himself or was he directed by somebody to do it?”
John McCain called the resignation “a troubling indication of the dysfunction of the current national security apparatus.”
We’re glad to see common sense winning out so early in the Presidency!
Obviously it’ll take more than a handful of GOP leaders to come together with Democrats to demand answers, but it’s an important step.
And it’s looking like a more and more pertinent one.
[Image via NBC/ATP/WENN.]
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