MOSCOW: Russia no longer considers itself bound by self-restrictions on deploying intermediate-and shorter-range missiles (INF) as the co...
MOSCOW: Russia no longer considers itself bound by self-restrictions on deploying intermediate-and shorter-range missiles (INF) as the conditions for observing the moratorium have vanished, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry noted certain steps taken by the collective West in the sphere of proliferating such missiles and emphasized that they create a direct threat to Russia’s security. The statement stressed that this requires special measures on the part of Russia.
"With our repeated warnings on that matter having gone ignored and the situation developing towards the de facto deployment of US-made intermediate-and shorter-range ground-based missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian Foreign Ministry has to declare that any conditions for the preservation of a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar arms no longer exist, and it is further authorized to state that the Russian Federation does not consider itself bound by relevant self-restrictions approved earlier," the ministry noted.
Dangerous steps
The ministry noted that since 2023, Moscow has observed US systems capable of INF ground launches being transferred to European NATO countries and the Asia-Pacific region for testing during drills with an explicit anti-Russian orientation.
"The above-mentioned steps by the collective West, taken together, lead to the formation and buildup of destabilizing missile potentials in regions adjacent to Russia, creating a direct, strategic threat to the security of our country. In general, such a march of events is fraught with a serious negative impact and significant detrimental consequences for regional and global stability, including a dangerous escalation of tensions between nuclear powers," the Foreign Ministry said.
"Decisions on the specific parameters of response measures will be made by Russia’s leadership based on an interdepartmental analysis of the scale of deployment of US and other Western ground-based INF missiles, as well as the general development of the situation in the field of international security and strategic stability," the ministry concluded.
About INF Treaty
The INF Treaty was signed by the former Soviet Union and the United States in December 1987. It banned the deployment of ground-based and cruise missiles with a range from 500 to 5,500 kilometers. However, the United States withdrew from the treaty in 2019. Despite this, Moscow pledged not to manufacture and deploy such missiles as long as Washington refrains from doing this in any part of the world.
Earlier, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia reserves the right to deploy the intermediate-and shorter-range missiles in case of NATO provocations near the country’s borders. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov in an interview with TASS noted that the existence of Russia’s moratorium on the deployment of the intermediate-and shorter-range missiles is coming to its logical end, as the West did not appreciate Moscow’s restraint.
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