Vladimir Putin announced that Russia also moved away from the INF nuclear disarmament treaty and asked the US "mature" – 02/02/2019

Russia is following the lead of the United States and has decided to suspend its participation in the INF nuclear disarmament treaty signed by the two powers in 1987, which was a decisive step towards the end of the cold war.

President Vladimir Putin made this announcement Saturday of the Kremlin, in response to a similar measure pbaded by Donald Trump in recent hours.

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"We are going to give a symmetrical answer, our American partners have announced that they are suspending their participation in the treaty, we do it too"said the Russian leader at a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigú.

Putin pointed out that the United States has ignored Russia's disarmament initiatives for years andall the time looking for excuses to dismantle the existing security system"

He also asked Foreign Affairs and Defense officials not to start negotiations on the issue before that "American partners are maturing conduct a coherent and equal dialogue "on an issue that is" very important to both of us, as well as to our partners and the rest of the world ".

At the same time, Putin denied that Russia is now considering taking part in another arms race with Washington.

"We must not be dragged into an expensive arms race"he badured.

Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987, which eliminated missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.

Foreign Minister Lavrov said that Moscow "was trying to do everything possible to save the treaty, taking into account its importance for strategic security in Europe and the world".

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And Defense Minister Shoigú badured that the United States "it violated the treaty" for disarmament agreed during the Cold War and proposed start developing a medium-range hypersonic land-based missile in Russia, initiative that has received approval.

At that time, the United States gave Russia a deadline of February 2 to comply with the "INF" in a "verifiable" manner. The ultimatum was rejected by the Russian authorities, who accused Washington of increase the risk of a nuclear war in the world by abandoning the main disarmament treaties for international security.

The head of the American diplomacy, Mike Pompeo, declared that his country dealt with Russia more than 30 times the question of alleged violations of the treaty.

The North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) has issued an official note from Brussels in which it fully subscribes to the US decision.

In a TV message, Putin said that Moscow will deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles only if Washington does so.

sources: EFE, AP, AFP.