Russia is disappointed over NATO’s reaction at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal for a moratorium on deploying weapons previously banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Tuesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has recently confirmed that Putin has sent a proposal to “major European and Asian countries and international organizations” to introduce a moratorium on deploying weapons covered by the collapsed deal.
“The reaction of NATO as a whole and its member states is disappointing. Unfortunately, we do not see readiness to follow our example, but we will continue working on implementation of this idea, as a dramatic deterioration of security situation in Europe and, possibly, other regions is what may happen otherwise,” Ryabkov told reporters.
The INF deal, signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987, was terminated on August 2 at the United States’ initiative after the country formally suspended its INF obligations six months earlier. Both countries had repeatedly accused each other of violating the deal, which banned any ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,417 miles).
