Russia has said there now no longer no “restrictions” to deploy nuclear missiles and the Kremlin waned they will “take appropriate measures if necessary.”
The Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “Russia no longer sees itself as limited,” to deploy intermediate-range and short-range missiles (INF).
The Kremlin’s spokesman added, “Russia considers itself entitled to take appropriate measures if necessary, to take appropriate steps.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on 4 August the Kremlin “no longer considers itself bound” by the signed agreement in 1987 between President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev and will use long range missiles between 500 and 5,500 kilometres if they so wish.
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The INF Treaty which was signed by the two former Presidents banned nuclear conventional missiles to launch between 500 and 5,500 kilometres, the treaty now no longer exists.
William Alberque, a former head of NATO’s nuclear non-proliferation center told Newsweek, “The Oreshnik, if it is deployed in numbers, would certainly be a violation.”
Peskov told reporters, “Russia no longer has any limitations, Russia no longer considers itself to be constrained by anything.
“Therefore, Russia believes it has the right to take respective steps if necessary.”
The Foreign Ministry said, “Decisions on specific parameters of response measures will be made by the leadership of the Russian Federation based on an interdepartmental analysis of the scale of deployment of American and other Western land-based intermediate-range missiles, as well as the development of the overall situation in the area of international security and strategic stability.”
The former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, “The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement on the withdrawal of the moratorium on the deployment of medium- and short-range missiles is the result of NATO countries’ anti-Russian policy.
“This is a new reality all our opponents will have to reckon with. Expect further steps.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement the unfolding situation in Europe and Asia Pacific started the reassessment of short and medium range missiles.
They said, “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.”
In 2019 the US President withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty amid non-compliance from Moscow.