Second Scott Ritter Intervention from International Peace Coalition

Nov. 24—The following is an edited transcript of former UN Weapons Inspector and NATO critic Scott Ritter's second comments at the Nov. 22 meeting of the International Peace Coalition. We present them as a cogent report on the current strategic significance of Russia's deployment of a hypersonic IRBM in its Nov. 21 attack on the Ukraine..

SCOTT RITTER: I want to applaud Steven Starr for laying out this case succinctly, accurately, dispassionately; almost too dispassionately. It’s not a criticism, it’s a reflection of his professionalism, except that people should be changing their underwear in fear after listening to what he said, and yet, I think his soothing voice has calmed us into believing that maybe this was just another academic presentation; it wasn’t. He was laying out the imminent demise of mankind. I want to reinforce that point.

The Russian weapon that was used—I’m getting ready to publish a paper on this today, if we make it; that breaks down what I think it is. There’s not much literature out there, but if you know the history of Russian ballistic missile design and such, this was a weapon that is related to a weapon that the Soviets were developing back in the early 1980s called the Skorost. The Skorost missile, 15Zh66, was quickly developed by then-Minister of Defense Ustinov, to respond to the planned deployment of Pershing II missiles by the United States into Germany. The Russians were very afraid of the Pershing II, because once you launched the Pershing II, seven minutes later it hit Moscow. The Russians were not happy about that. So, they built this missile, the Skorost, which was an amalgam of components drawn from the SS-20 Pioneer, the Mod-3 version of the Pioneer, the SS-25 (which was still under development), the SS-27 (which was top secret under development; nobody even knew it existed). They put it all together in a two-stage missile topped with conventional warheads. They were going to flood Czechoslovakia and East Germany with these systems and monitor on a continuous basis the Pershing II bases. And the moment the Pershing II went to the field in a manner that looked suspicious, they would take it out; preemptively. That was what the Skorost was all about; to preemptively take out emerging threats. The system was nearing production when the INF Treaty—in fact, it was ready to go into production in March of 1987. But in December, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, so the Skorost went the way of history. And in doing so, the Skorost …

People need to understand—again, I keep telling people—there was a time when we talked to the Soviets; there was a time when we talked to the Russians. I spent a lot of time at the Russian Embassy in the last two years, attending functions and talking to Anatoly Antonov, the ambassador; talking to Major General Bobkin, the Defense Attaché, and talking to his officers, and having very detailed conversations. Bobkin was a former, when we started talking, he was—he’s a Strategic Rocket Forces guy, who was in an SS-25 unit in Novosibirsk when I inspected it in 1990. What a small world we live in. And he was sent to the United States to help facilitate arms control talks, how to prevent the very crisis that we’re in.

Anatoly Antonov is an expert on the United States. He speaks English fluently. He was, of course, the man who negotiated the new START Treaty with Rose Gottemoeller. He was ready to engage again on extending the new START Treaty to prevent exactly what’s happening. Anatoly Antonov was here for seven years, and the U.S. didn’t talk to him. Bobkin arrived, and the first thing that happened was that the Ukrainians got him blackballed in the defense attaché circuits, so nobody talked to him.

Had they talked to him—as I did—they would have gotten an insight into how the Strategic Rocket Forces felt about the INF Treaty, about the START Treaty, about disarmament; about what Gorbachev did to them, and how they feel that impacted their national security. And you would understand that they were very bitter about this entire experience. They felt that they had been weakened by it. They were ready to regain the former glory of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces.

If you’ve studied Russian military history, Soviet military history, you understand that the present day is very much influenced by the past. So, when the United States withdraws from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, under President Trump, Putin said we see this treaty as being very important to prevent war. So, we will not develop new intermediate-range systems, and we’ll act as if the treaty is in force, so long as you don’t deploy intermediate-range systems into Europe. Of course, earlier this year in a NATO exercise in Denmark, we deployed intermediate-range missiles, nuclear-capable, to Denmark. And Putin said, OK, we’re moving forward. And the byproduct of this is the missile that was tested the other day.

But people don’t understand what this missile is. This missile is the modern-day version of the Skorost. You see, the Russians are building a missile that can be pushed forward and be ready to preempt Dark Eagle, our intermediate-range missile. The Russians just put the Mark-41 [Mk-41] Aegis Ashore on notice in Poland that it is a target—a target that will destroy it is this. Look at what this was. This is a missile that makes use of not the Yars—which is what the Rubezh, the RS-26 is, which this is derived from, used the Yars first stage. This uses the Kedr first stage, the Cedar. Most people don’t know what the Cedar is, but the Ukrainians just came out and said that. It’s the Cedar. How would they know that? They have got the debris. On the debris are serial numbers, and the serial numbers show what the booster was. This is the most modern booster that the Russians have. Similar in size to the Yars, so it doesn’t change the configuration of the system, but it has unique solid-fuel principles that allow the missile to burn in variable speeds, making it impossible to target. The other thing it does, is, it doesn’t use traditional MIRVs. I keep hearing people say “multiple independently-targetted reentry vehicles.” That not what this was—not at all. This is the new system. The new system is, instead of bus—a plate, so to speak—where the warheads are attached, that separates from the missile, and then comes in and releases the warheads to their target—on a trajectory though, because it’s still moving, as this happens. What we have now, is independent mini-missiles that are there. They fire themselves. So the first stage takes it up, second stage puts it in, and then you fire these independent missiles. And these missiles, each one of them had six large sub-munitions on them. This is where the name Hazelnut [Oreshnik] comes from. Because if you look at a hazelnut tree, you look at the pod of nuts, it’s exactly what you see with these sub-munitions coming down. This missile was developed specifically to take out Dark Eagle missile arrays. If you take a look at the layout, the footprint of the Dark Eagle, where the radar is, where the command and communications are: This missile is designed to annihilate that! People kept saying, “Where’s the explosion?” It’s not meant to be high-explosive. It’s meant to be a kinetic kill. These sub-munitions come down, and they will kinetically kill everything on the ground. These sub-munitions come down at such a velocity, that if they hit the Aegis Ashore, it will be a smoky hole in the ground. This is what this missile is designed for.

Putin just put us on notice, that he has a conventional missile system that is designed to preempt anything and everything NATO plans on doing to Russia! And there is no NATO response. There’s nothing they can do about it. This is literally the equivalent of the most alpha wolf in the world coming in and pissing all over your home! That’s what Putin just did! And it didn’t have to be this way. Putin said, right there, your withdrawal from the INF Treaty was the greatest mistake you have ever made. Because now you have compelled us to do this; and here we are. We didn’t want to be here, but because of all the provocations you’ve done, we have checkmated you. And that’s the case. I don’t think the West has woken up to what has just happened. It is over! Over for the West!

The only thing we can do is nuclear war. And sadly, we have somebody who believes that we can have a nuclear exchange. I just again want to have people reflect on what that means. It means the Biden administration is ready to sacrifice 100 million Americans, for Ukraine. The Biden administration is willing to sacrifice 100 million Americans for Ukraine. Is that we want?

I want to thank Professor Starr for his presentation, it was fantastic. But guys, this is as real as it gets. This isn’t theoretical. The reason I went through all the stuff about this missile, is to point out that sometimes when people talk about weapons systems and all that, people feel a little remote from it. They don’t identify with it, because it’s something they don’t understand. So, I wanted to bring it in, in a way that hopefully everybody understood what is going on, what this represents, how real this missile is. And what the consequences of our actions are, in compelling Russia to develop this missile. And now, the impossible situation it’s put us in. Because understand, it has put us in an impossible situation—a very dangerous situation. By revealing this missile and showing his willingness to use this, Putin has literally given the West two options: Capitulate, or nuclear war.

We have to find a way to find a third option. We have to find a way to get in between. We have to find a way to communicate. This is a communication; it isn’t just amongst an American audience. We have to communicate with the Russians. And we can’t do it directly—because that’s against the law, apparently; that’s the Logan Act. But we can do it indirectly. For instance, me talking to you. If a Russian is listening to this; copy it to another Russian; and copy it to another Russian; and get this goddamned mess (excuse my language, but I’m very upset guys). Because we’re going to die, and I sort of wanted to spend Christmas with my family. I had big plans for Christmas, and I don’t think we’re going to have a Christmas right now. That’s how dangerous this situation is. We have to stop it! We have to pull out all the stops; we have to communicate with our fellow Americans. We have to send a signal to Donald Trump that you can’t just sit there and let this happen. You were elected to prevent this, and they’re going around you. You must speak out now! I’ve invited Trump to come to the rally to speak out; to let his voice be heard; to rally the American people around him. I’m not asking for a January 6th; I’m asking for a December 7th. It’s a beautiful day to do it on—Pearl Harbor Day. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could actually reverse the historical legacy of Pearl Harbor; and instead of celebrating December 7th every year as a day when the Japanese attacked us, celebrate it as a day that the American people saved their lives and saved the world while they’re at it? And after we do it on December 7th, we can then on December 8th reflect on the fact that that’s when the INF Treaty was signed. And maybe we can start promoting arms control and get a new INF Treaty signed, so that this new missile that the Russians have developed can go back into the trash heap of history. And the Dark Eagle goes into the trash heap of history. And once again, sanity prevails as we eliminate the single most destabilizing weapons in the world, which are these intermediate-range nuclear weapons. December 7th and December 8th; you couldn’t have picked two more historically relevant dates. Let’s help make them relevant. Let’s redefine December 7th, and let’s breathe new life into December 8th.

Again, thank you, Professor Starr.