Russia to withdraw from key nuclear arms treaty, Putin says

Russia will withdraw from the Intermediate-RangeNuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, President Vladimir Putin said onSaturday after the United States announced that it was withdrawingfrom the agreement.The United States said on Friday that it was withdrawing from thetreaty with Russia, which dates to the waning years of the Cold War,amid accusations that Moscow is in violation of the deal. "Our American partners have declared the suspension of theirparticipation in the treaty, and we also suspend it," Putin said at ameeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence MinisterSergei Shoigu.He added that Russia would now begin work on developing newmedium-range missiles. However, Moscow will only deploy the missilesif Washington does so, he said.There would be no further negotiations with the US on the subject"until our partners are mature enough to have an equal and meaningfuldialogue with us on this important issue," Putin said. "At the same time, we do not want to be drawn into an expensive armsrace," he added.Russia's Foreign Ministry vowed on Friday to take measures inresponse to the US withdrawing from the treaty.US officials had refused to completely rule out the option of savingthe 1987 pact, but they said the onus was now on Russia to takemeasures to eliminate the missiles that Washington alleged were inviolation of the treaty. Russia insists it is not in violation of the deal and has counteredthat the US breached the terms with its own missile deployment inEurope.At the meeting on Saturday, Lavrov said Russia had done everything inits power to save the treaty and had sought dialogue with the USseveral times. "The Americans have lost all interest," he said.Also on Saturday, China said it "opposes the US withdrawal and urgesthe United States and Russia to properly resolve their differencesthrough constructive dialogue."Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that "the USunilateral withdrawal may trigger a series of negative consequences,and China will pay close attention to the follow-up developments."