Putin: Russia will produce banned missiles if the US withdraws from Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia will build missiles banned under the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles if the United States leaves the arms control agreement and start producing such weapons, the Kremlin stated.
“The arguments are quite clear. Russia and the United States are the only countries that do not produce such weapons. This is true, indeed. Many countries – probably about a dozen of them – produce such weapons. Russia and the United States have undertaken to bilaterally limit themselves. Now it seems our American partners believe that the situation has changed so much that the United States must also have such a weapon,” Putin said after the award ceremony of “The Volunteer of Russia 2018”.
What is our response? It’s simple - in that case we will also do this.
The INF Treaty was signed between the United States and the USSR in 1987. The parties pledged to destroy ballistic and cruise ground-based medium (1000-5500 km) and short-range (500-1000 km) missiles and not to produce or deploy weapons of this kind in the future.