Kremlin: Russia offers NATO a moratorium on deployment of intermediate range missiles
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow would like to offer the United States and NATO to declare a moratorium on the deployment of missiles of the shorter and medium range following the example of Russia, reports TASS news agency.
"We offered the United States and other NATO countries to discuss the possibility of declaring the same moratorium on the deployment of medium-range and shorter-range weapons, as the moratorium declared by Vladimir Putin," Ryabkov said. The Deputy Minister explained that, according to Putin, Russia wouldn't deploy new missile systems if the US won't do that either.
On February 2, Putin announced that Russia would not participate in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in response to similar actions by the United States. At the same time, he added that the Russian side will not place medium-range and shorter-range weapons in Europe or other regions of the world if similar American-made weapons don't appear there.
The US began the withdrawal process from the INF Treaty on February 2. The whole process should be completed in six months. The reason for the withdrawal from the agreement for Washington was the development of a 9M729 cruise missile by the Russia. The United States believes that the range of its flight exceeds the permitted norms, but Russia denies it.