The ministry said that the responsibility for the "collapse" of the INF Treaty rests with the NATO leader - the United States, and the fact that the country tested the Mk-41 launcher, which is used in the US missile defense system in Romania and Poland, confirmed the validity of Russian claims against the White House about the possibility of their use.
“At the same time, unsubstantiated accusations against Russia about non-compliance with the INF Treaty were used solely as an excuse for the United States to withdraw from the agreement,” they said there, adding that the Americans were developing a missile of a forbidden range back in the period of the treaty.
In addition, the Ministry of Defense noted that Russia has not tested and is not armed, unlike the United States, with medium- and shorter-range missiles.
“In this situation, instead of various kinds of insinuations on the Treaty, which was destroyed by the United States, we expect to hear assurances from our Western partners about the unacceptability of deploying US medium- and shorter-range ground-based missiles on their territory, which the US side has already begun to develop,” summed up there.
Earlier, Russian leader Vladimir Putin during a WEF session said that Russia would produce medium- and shorter-range missiles that had previously been banned by the INF Treaty, but would not deploy them to the United States.
On August 21, Putin commented on a U.S. test of a non-nuclear ground-based cruise missile that was banned by the INF Treaty.
Later, the head of state instructed to analyze the level of threat in connection with the US test.
The Kremlin emphasized that Russia has begun preparing a response to Washington in connection with the rocket test.