"American
partners have announced suspension of their participation in the treaty, and we
will suspend", Russian President said.
MOSCOW, February 2.
/TASS/. President Vladimir Putin has announced suspension of Russia’s
participation in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty).
"We will do as
follows. We will come up with a tit-for-tat response. American partners have
announced suspension of their participation in the treaty, and we will
suspend," he said at a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday.
On Friday, Secretary
of State Michael Pompeo voiced the decision made by President Donald Trump that
Washington would suspend its liabilities under the INF Treaty starting February
2 and would quit it within six months if Russia fails to comply with its
demands.
Moscow has repeatedly
said it retains the right for a tit-for-tat response.
Putin has ordered to
abandon attempts to initiate the talks on the INF Treaty.
"As before, all
our proposals in that field (containment of short-and intermediate-range
missiles) remain on the table, the doors for talks are open," he said.
"Meanwhile, I am asking both ministries not to initiate any talks on that
issue in the future. Let us wait and see our partners become mature enough to
conduct an equitable and meaningful dialog with us on that crucial issue - both
for us, for our partners, and for the whole world," Putin emphasized.
President added that
Moscow has long been raising the issue of conducting meaningful talks on the
disarmament issue. "Over the past several years we have seen that the
partners do not support our initiatives. On the contrary, (they) are constantly
looking for certain pretexts to dismantle the global security system that has
already been created," he said.
Russian missiles of
intermediate and shorter range will not be deployed in world’s various regions
earlier than the US deploys similar weapons there, Putin told.
"We assume that
Russia will not deploy missiles of intermediate and shorter range, if such
weapons emerge, either in Europe, or in other regions of the world until such
weapons made by the US appear in respective regions of the world," he
noted.
President also asked
both ministers to "closely monitor the developments and promptly report
about proposals on (Russia’s) response".
Source: ITAR-TASS
02-02-2019
