Righteous Hypocrisy or Just Plain Sanctimony?

Russian Defense Ministry officials show off Russia's 9M729 cruise missile at the military Patriot Park outside Moscow on January 23. Moscow insisted the range of a missile system that has prompted Washington to withdraw from a key Cold War-era arms treaty is allowed under the agreement. VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images

"It is noteworthy that the test of an advanced Tomahawk-type missile was conducted just 16 days after the U.S. withdrew from INF, and the treaty was terminated."
"Perhaps, there can be no clearer and more explicit confirmation of the fact that the United States has been developing such systems for a long time, and preparations for quitting the agreement included, in particular, the relevant research and development."
"The missile had been fired using the Mk41 vertical launching system. That's a universal launching system that is suitable for both firing SM-3 interceptor missiles and ground-to-ground and surface-to-surface cruise missiles. All that is regrettable."
"The United States has evidently set the course for fomenting military tensions. Russia will not be pulled into [a] new arms race."
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov

"We do not give in to provocations. As Russian President [Vladimir Putin] said in France yesterday, we reiterate our commitment to a unilateral moratorium on deploying land-based intermediate-range systems until the U.S. deploys such systems in some part of the world."
"Several weeks and even months are not enough to make preparations for such a test."
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov

The U.S. conducts a test flight of a conventionally-configured ground-launched cruise missile at San Nicolas Island, California, August 18. The weapon, which the Pentagon told Newsweek "was a variant of the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile" using a Mark-41 Vertical Launch System, was said to have flown more than 310 miles, a range once restricted by a deal signed by Washington and Moscow in 1987 and since abandoned by both. U.S. Department of Defense

"[The test occurred] less than three weeks after the U.S. announced its official withdrawal from the INF Treaty."
"This move by the U.S. will trigger a new round of an arms race, leading to an escalation of military confrontation and a serious negative impact on the international and regional security situation." 
"We advise the U.S. to abandon its outdated Cold War mentality and zero-sum game concept, maintain restraint in the arms development, earnestly safeguard the existing arms control system and do more that is conducive to maintaining global strategic balance and stability and conducive to international and regional peace and tranquility."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang

Three radiation victims were brought to the Arkhangelsk regional hospital

"[The emergency room continued to admit other patients for about an hour, until the doctors realized that the three] had received a very high radiation dose."
"The radiation picture was developing by the hour. Blood tests were being done, and every hour you could see that this or that cell count was plunging. That signified a very high radiation dose."
"[The casualties' clothing was removed, along with stretchers and a] highly radioactive bath."
"Our cleaners should have been advised, they're just simple country folk, they were just picking up sacks and bundles and carrying them out."
Arkhangelsk medics

 According to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) operating as an international network of radiation monitoring stations, two Russian radiation monitoring stations went offline two days following a mysterious nuclear accident in Arkhangelsk near the northern frontier of Russia. The logical conclusion being that a rather clumsy cover-up operation had been launched; none too subtle, at that. Russian officials have their own explanation.

According to a local news website there is a simple enough explanation, "network and communications problems" have beset the stations in Dubna and Kirov, necessitating their temporary shut-down. Completely defensible, logical and acceptable. And that mysterious explosion hard by a military test range on August 8? What explosion? Oh, that one. Yes the one where five nuclear scientists died. The one where nearby Severodvinsk was the site of a brief and inexplicable radiation spike.

Take it from the Russian military, though, no radiation was released, and they should know, should they not? The public was notified through an official statement from Severodvinsk authorities of a radiation level increase, but that official statement was unofficially withdrawn from the website of the city government. The CTBTO head, Lassina Zerbo noted his organization was looking at "technical problems experienced at two neighbouring stations", amid speculation the blast was caused by a failed nuclear-powered cruise missile.

And according to the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, two of the Russian specialists who died in the explosion at a White Sea missile testing range died of radiation sickness before they could be shipped out to Moscow for treatment, and not as a result of traumatic injuries caused by the blast's impact. An unnamed medical worker involved in their care explained: "Two of the patients did not make it to the airport and died. The radiation dose was very high, and symptoms of radiation sickness grew every hour."

Rest assured, all is well. The blast, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, took place during a test of 'promising' new weapons systems. "When it comes to activities of a military nature, there are certain restrictions on access to information". Moscow, he stressed cannot reveal everything because of its delicate military nature, so which weapons system was being tested is kept under careful wraps, understandably.

"[Medics were speaking out now because they feared for their own health and did not want any similar] safety violations [to recur]."
"We don't want them to bring us next time not three, but ten people, God forbid, and hide the information from us again."

Lassina Zerbo ✔ @SinaZerbo

To requests on #IMS detection beyond #CTBT, data in, or near the path of potential plume from the explosion are being analyzed. We’re also addressing w/station operators technical problems experienced at two neighboring stations. All data are available to our Member States.

CTBTO ✔ @ctbto_alerts

In response to media queries, and to meet civil society expectations on applications of #CTBTO data beyond the Treaty, we confirm an event coinciding with the 8 Aug explosion in #Nyonoksa, Russia, was detected at 4 #IMS stations (3 seismic, 1 infrasound).