Trump says the United States will withdraw from the intermediate-range nuclear pact

President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he would step down from a historic arms control agreement signed by the United States and the Soviet Union, accusing Russia of violating the pact.

The Cold War era treaty required the two countries to eliminate from their arsenals nuclear missiles and conventional and short – range missiles.

"Russia has unfortunately not respected the agreement, so we will end the agreement and we will withdraw," Trump told reporters after a rally in Nevada.

The agreement prevented the United States from developing new weapons, but Trump said Saturday that the United States would start developing them unless Russia and China agree not to own or develop these weapons. China is not currently party to the pact.

"We will have to develop these weapons, unless Russia comes to see us, and China comes to see us, and they contact us all and say, 'Let's be really smart and do not develop these weapons,'" he said. he declared to the press.

"If Russia does it, and China does it, and we agree to it, it's unacceptable," he said.

Trump did not provide details on the violations, but in 2017, national security officials at the White House said that Russia had deployed a cruise missile in violation of the treaty. Earlier, the Obama administration had accused the Russians of violating the pact by developing and testing a banned cruise missile.

Russia has repeatedly denied that it has violated the treaty and accused the United States of not complying with it.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov fired back at Trump on Sunday, accusing Washington of blackmail and claiming that the US government's withdrawal from the nuclear deal would be "a very dangerous step."

"We condemn the ongoing blackmail attempts to obtain concessions from Russia," Ryabkov said quoted by the Russian news agency TASS.

He added that Trump's decision "will result in the most serious condemnation of all members of the international community committed to security and stability".

"Apparently, the inability and unwillingness to negotiate with us on a reasonable basis is pushing certain forces in Washington to bring the country's leaders to a decision on the formal withdrawal of the treaty," he said. "It would be a very dangerous step."

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament also condemned Trump's decision.

"It's a reckless move by Trump," CND Secretary-General Kate Hudson said Sunday in a statement.

"The dismantling of the Mid-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty will mark the end of the restrictions imposed on nuclear arsenals in the 1980s. The danger is that we will see arsenals multiply on the scale of the cold war."

"This is only the last of a growing list of reckless American positions," the statement added.

At the same time, National Security Adviser John Bolton visited Saturday in Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. His first stop is in Moscow, where he will meet Russian leaders, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev.

His visit comes at a time when relations between Moscow and Washington remain so frosty in the face of the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race and elections. mid-term in the United States.