Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Newsmax TV on Thursday that Russia had "made no effort" to comply with the nuclear arms treaty that ended the Cold War — despite a 60-day ultimatum set by President Donald Trump — and it "makes no sense" for the U.S. to remain in the agreement otherwise.
"Unfortunately, the Russians have made no effort to comply with the treaty any more than they did for the previous four or five years that we've been having these conversations," Pompeo told Newsmax TV host John Bachman in an exclusive interview in Washington.
"But it makes no sense," he added. "It makes no sense for a treaty with two parties, only one of whom is complying, for us to stay in that."
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The U.S. told Russia last month it had until Feb. 4 to abide by the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to keep the weapons out of Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected U.S. claims that Moscow has violated the agreement, signed between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
In addition, Pompeo told Newsmax TV the administration was working to free former Marine Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive, who was being held on espionage charges.
The Russian Federal Security Service said Whelan was caught "during an espionage operation," but gave no specifics about why he has been detained.
"We're doing everything we can to make sure that he's being treated appropriately and we get the information we need," Pompeo told Bachman.
U.S. ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman met with Whelan in Moscow and later spoke by telephone to his family in Michigan, the secretary said.
"The American people should know that the safety and security of Americans traveling abroad is of the utmost importance to us at the State Department and throughout the United States government," Pompeo said.
Despite these developments with the Kremlin, however, the secretary declined to say whether a new Cold War was afoot between the U.S. and Moscow.
"We're not quite back to that place today," Pompeo told Bachman, "and I'm happy about that."
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