Former General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and former President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev commented on the statement by Donald trump about a possible U.S. withdrawal from the Treaty on the elimination of intermediate range (the INF Treaty).
Recall, the Soviet Union and the United States signed the INF Treaty in 1987, in a period of significant warming in relations between the two countries. The Treaty of Washington was signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan.
Portraits of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev at the Berlin wall memorial
In an interview to «Interfax» 87-year-old Mikhail Gorbachev noted that America’s decision «will undermine all the efforts that have been made by the leaders of the USSR and the United States to achieve nuclear disarmament.» The rejection of the Treaty, «as they say, not from a great mind,» added Gorbachev.
Today, 22 October, the Kremlin made an official statement about the threat of a trump.
«The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned that breaking the Treaty will force Moscow to take concrete military steps to protect its own security. The rejection of the Treaty by the US would mean that they intend to create complexes of ballistic and cruise missiles of medium and shorter-range missiles. In this case, Russia will have to respond by restoring the balance in this sphere», — said the press Secretary of the Kremlin Dmitry Peskov.
A statement trump has condemned the President of France and the governments of Germany and China.
