U.S.A. Russia, a new arms race on the horizon...

The United States Congress aims to break up several agreements with Russia on gun control what reflects the dangerous state of relations between Washington and Moscow and the threat of a new arms race.

In a series of provisions that have been attached to the draft budget for defence for 2018 ʹ worth $696 billion ʹ lawmakers led by the Republicans have targeted the Treaty of Nuclear Forces with the Middle Line, as well as the Start and Open Heavens treaties.

All three are considered extremely important in controlling global weapons, and their movement signals sharp change in American politics.

The “would be a major blow to the weapons control architecture between the US and Russia, which is already damaged”, says Kingston Reif, analyst at the Association of Arms Control, Washington Research Group.

“These measures will undermine American security, destroying stability between the two largest nuclear powers and increasing the risk of nuclear race”, Rif says.

Relations between Washington and Moscow have been strained over the past decade, due to disagreements over NATO enlargement, US missile defence, then democratisation and “coloured revolutions” in the former Soviet Union, and late Moscow's intervention in Ukraine and Syria.

United States President Donald Trump has taken office this year praising Russian President Vladimir Putin, and naming him NATO as an outdated organisation. His administration has been followed by investigations by Congress and the FBI into Russia's possible intervention in US presidential elections and the alleged co-operation of Trump's team with Russian officials.

In Moscow, Russian officials have already predicted the passage of new provisions, warning of a new arms race.

“I think it will be bad for everyone, because it promotes arms race efforts and no one can win it”, says Vladimir Shanovo, chairman of the Defence Committee in the Russian Parliament's Lower Chamber, the RIA Novosti agency broadcasts.

The Middle Ray Nuclear Forces Treaty may be at the greatest risk.

Signed by American and Soviet leaders in 1987, the Treaty, for the first time, has eliminated an entire missile class in Europe.

In 2014, the United States has formally accused Russia of developing a missile, contrary to the Treaty of Nuclear Forces with Middle Ray, even though intelligence experts have said the system has been developing several years before the Treaty.

Washington has reiterated its findings this year, that Moscow is violating the Treaty. In March, General Paul Selba, deputy head of the US Army's General Staff, has told Congress that Russia has begun deploying weapons. He has said that this violates the “breath and target” of the Treaty and that it poses a threat to NATO.

The Middle Line Nuclear Forces Treaty, in all likelihood, is a dead pact”, written in an article in May, James Acton, political analyst at the Carnegie Institute for International Peace.

Congress republics, for years, have been angry and accused former President Barack Obama of hiding intelligence information about Russia's alleged missile.

A provision included in the defence proposal for 2018 says that if Russia fails to act in line with the Nuclear Forces Treaty with the Middle Line within 15 months of adoption of the law, “The U.S. will no longer be legally obliged to the” Treaty.

The head of the Senate of Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce, has attached a special amendment to the defence law, which would punish Russia with new sanctions, would limit its access to technology for the production of advanced and other weapons.

Another amendment limits the possibility of President Trump continuing the Start Treaty after it expires in 2021, if the Trump administration cannot prove that disagreements over the Middle-Red Nuclear Forces Treaty have been resolved.

Moscow, on the other hand, has repeatedly denied Washington's accusations. It has also accused the US of deploying missile defence systems in Eastern Europe, saying such systems violate the Middle-Rage Nuclear Forces Treaty.

The defence budget also does not provide funds for the Open Heavens Treaty, an agreement signed in 2002 that allows the US and Russia, along with 32 other countries, to make monitoring flights on each other's territory. Its aim is to increase transparency and reduce the risk of misinterpreting each other's military actions.

In recent months, Republicans have said Russia is using new and advanced sensors to carry out its US flights.