On Saturday, 2 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin during a special meeting with defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, announced his decision to suspend participation in the Treaty on the elimination of intermediate and short-range, signed by the countries during the cold war.
«American partners said that they had to suspend their participation in the transaction, we also suspend it,» — said Putin. «They announced that they were engaged in research and technological developments, and we will do the same thing.»
Moscow and Washington recent months had the opportunity to exchange mutual accusations of violation of the notorious Treaty. In December, U.S. Secretary of state Michael Pompeo said that Russia systematically does not fulfill the conditions of the transaction for many years, and they «cannot be considered in isolation from the larger impunity of Russia on the world stage», when Moscow invaded Georgia (in 2008) and Ukraine (in 2014). Sergey Lavrov at the meeting today said that the United States violates the Treaty since 1999.
«This permanent agreement, the United States began to break since 1999, when they began to experience combat drones, which are characteristics coincide with the prohibited contract cruise land-based missiles,» – said the Minister.
Suspending participation in the nuclear agreement, the two countries for 6 months will be required to adhere to its terms, and in August 2019, the parties or terminated it completely, or will be able to re-negotiate.
The Treaty on the elimination of intermediate and short range, was signed by US President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary CPSU Mikhail Gorbachev in Washington on 8 December 1987, the agreement forbade both sides to produce ballistic and cruise nuclear land-based missiles with a range of 500 km to 5.5 thousand km, testing and deployment.
