WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today sent a letter to Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector General Jon Rymer calling on him to look into the department’s awareness of Russian compliance issues related to the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty during the negotiation and ratification of the New START treaty.

“We are concerned that the Defense Department was either not aware of such compliance concerns or chose not to inform the Senate of these compliance concerns, nor to include them in the annual compliance report for the period between 2005-2008,” the Senators wrote.

The letter stipulates that the Inspector General should finalize a report no later than September 1, 2014.

Under law, DOD and the State Department are required to prepare an annual report on Russia’s compliance with its arms control treaty obligations.

On January 29, the New York Times reported that the Obama Administration knew of Russia’s INF treaty violations when Moscow tested missiles prior to Senate consideration of the New START Treaty in 2010. An Inspector General report would help determine whether DOD officials were aware of these violations and failed to properly inform Congress.