Russian President Vladimir Putin has suspended a Cold War-era agreement after the US abandoned, authorizing his military forces to push ahead with development of new missiles.
“Our American partners have announced they are suspending their participation in the deal, and we are also suspending our participation,” Putin announced in a televised meeting with his foreign and defense ministers on Saturday.
“We will wait until our partners have matured enough to conduct an equal, meaningful dialogue with us on this important topic,” he added.
Putin said Russia would to work on its advanced intermediate-range missiles, including supersonic ones.
However, Moscow won’t deploy any new missiles unless Washington does so, because Russia does not want to enter a new arms race with the US, he added.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Friday that Washington would suspend the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) for 180 days and fully withdraw from it later if Moscow did not stop what he called “violations”.
Reacting to the US announcement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Moscow was still ready to maintain dialogue on the INF but reserved the right to respond to the US withdrawal from the pact.
On Saturday, however, Putin told his ministers not to initiate disarmament talks with the White House.
Source: Agencies
