Moscow: President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said Russia was suspending its participation in a key Cold War-era missile treaty in a mirror response to a US move the day before, agencies reported. “Our American partners have announced they are suspending their participation in the deal, and we are also suspending our participation,” he said of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Putin said during a meeting with foreign and defence ministers Sergei Lavrov and Sergei Shoigu Russia would no longer initiate talks with the US on disarmament. “We will wait until our partners have matured enough to conduct an equal, meaningful dialogue with us on this important topic,” the President said. US President Donald Trump said on Friday Washington was suspending its obligations under the INF treaty and starting a process to withdraw in six months. Washington says a Russian medium-range missile system breaches the INF deal.
But Moscow has long insisted it does not violate the agreement and last month invited reporters and foreign military attaches to a briefing on the disputed weapons system. Putin has previously threatened to develop nuclear missiles banned under the INF treaty if it is scrapped. Putin has also said if Washington moved to place more missiles in Europe after ditching the deal, Russia would respond “in kind” and that any European countries agreeing to host US missiles would be at risk of a Russian attack.
Signed towards the end of the Cold War by then US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the treaty bans ground-launched missiles with a range of between 500 and 5,500 kms. The deal resolved a crisis over Soviet nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles targeting Western capitals, but put no restrictions on other major military actors such as China. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said her government will use a six-month notice period to keep negotiating with Russia over the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. “In any case, we will do everything we can on the German side, both the Federal Foreign Minister and I, to make talks possible again in these six months,” Merkel said.