As Reuters noted, Putin’s announcement marks a final departure from one of the biggest Cold War treaties, which was struck over fears that the United States and the Soviet Union were entering into an arms race with China.
The Treaty on the Complete Elimination of Short- and Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) was signed by the Soviet Union and the United States in 1987. In 2019, Washington, under Donald Trump, broke the agreement because Russia, according to the United States, did not adhere to its arrangements. The Kremlin strongly rejected these accusations.
Will banned missiles return to Russia? “We have to answer this.”
The Russian dictator said on Friday that Russia has not produced such missiles since 2019. — Today it is known that the United States not only produces these missiles, but also transfers them for training to Denmark, and it was recently announced that they are in the Philippines. But he added that it is not known whether they took the missiles from there or not.
He stated that Russia is therefore forced to respond to these actions. — In any case, we have to react to it and decide what to do with it next. Judging by everything, we should start producing these offensive missiles, and depending on the real situation, decisions should be made about where they will be placed. […] He said publish them.
Russian-American relations. “A milestone in the deterioration”
The Associated Press noted that after violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the United States tested previously banned missiles. In April, the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun quoted the commander of US forces in the Pacific, General Charles Flynn, as saying that such missiles would be deployed in the region by the end of the year.
There was a violation of the INF Treaty. “A milestone in the deterioration of relations between the United States and Russia” -AP evaluation.
The INF Treaty was signed by the then leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, in 1987 in Washington. It provided for the elimination of the arsenals of these weapons and a ban on their production, stockpiling and use. The treaty covered missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 km. In 2019, the United States withdrew from the treaty, finding that the 9M729 missiles (SSC-8 in NATO classification), mounted on the Iskander bombers, violated the INF Treaty.
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