Russia has said on Tuesday that Moscow will plan to develop two new missile systems before 2021 in order to respond to the United States’ planned termination from a landmark nuclear arms control pact, the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
According to Reuters news reports, the Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had suspended the INF treaty with Washington, which imposed bans on both the countries from stationing short- and intermediate-range land-based nuclear missiles in Europe.
Russia and the US accused each other of violating the pact with Putin saying that Russia had acted in a fact to retaliate the US announcement withdrawing from the treaty.
Putin said the US had already made it clear that it planned for development, research and design work over new missiles systems and Russia would also do the same. The Moscow military should initiate working creating a land-based missile launch system for an existing cruise missile, the Kalibr, and also for the longer-range hypersonic missiles which have a capability to travel at least five times the speed of sound.
On Tuesday, defence minister Sergei Shoigu ordered the operations to begin on developing the newest missiles. Being a close ally of Putin, said he hoped the work would get completed by the end of 2020 so that it could get ready to launch in 2021.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Kremlin in Moscow on February 2.
In a meeting of defence chiefs, Shoigu said, “From Feb. 2, the United States suspended its obligations under the INF treaty. At the same time, they are actively working to create a land-based missile with a range of more than 500 km which is outside the treaty’s limits. President Putin has given the defense ministry the task of taking symmetrical measures.”
On Tuesday, in Geneva, the US disarmament ambassador Robert Wood told an UN-sponsored conference on disarmament the US would reconsider its terminations from the pact and “should Russia return to full and verifiable compliances”. “This is Russia’s final opportunity to return to compliance,” Wood said.