Amid US President Donald Trump’s increasing pressure to end the war in Ukraine, Russia has announced that it no longer considered itself bound by the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with America– a moratorium on the deployment of short- and medium-range nuclear missiles.
Moscow blamed “the actions of Western countries” for creating a “direct threat” to its security.
The move came days after US President Donald Trump ordered two nuclear submarines to “be positioned in the appropriate regions” near Russia. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the conditions for obliging to the soviat-era treaty had “disappeared,” and Moscow is no longer observing its previous self-imposed restrictions.
“West’s build-up of destabilizing missile potentials create a direct threat to security of our country,” it said in statement, according to RT.
Later, Russian former President Dmitry Medvedev blamed NATO countries for the abandonment of a moratorium on short- and medium-range nuclear missiles and said Moscow would take further steps in response.
Medvedev, who has been engaging in a exchange of acerbic barbs on social media with US President Donald Trump, said: “This is a new reality all our opponents will have to reckon with. Expect further steps.”
Medvedev, who now serves as deputy head of Russia’s powerful Security Council, did not elaborate.
The US withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty in 2019, citing Russian non-compliance. Russia has since said it would not deploy such weapons provided that Washington did not do so. However, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signalled last December that Moscow would have to respond to what he called “destabilising actions” by the U.S. and NATO in the strategic sphere.
“Since the situation is developing towards the actual deployment of US-made land-based medium- and short-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian Foreign Ministry notes that the conditions for maintaining a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar weapons have disappeared,” the ministry said in its statement.
About INF Treaty
The INF treaty, signed in 1987 by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan, eliminated an entire class of weapons — ground-launched missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometres (311 to 3,418 miles).
Medvedev, seen initially in the West as a potential moderate and reformer, has become one of the most hawkish senior officials on foreign policy in Moscow.
Trump last Friday said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be moved to “the appropriate regions” in response to remarks from Medvedev about the risk of war between the nuclear-armed adversaries.