Foreign Ministry: Russia no longer considers itself bound by the INF Treaty restrictions

Russia no longer considers itself bound by restrictions on the deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range land-based missiles. The corresponding statement was made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation on August 4.

They noted that Moscow's repeated warnings had been ignored, and at the moment the situation is developing along the path of the actual deployment of American-made missiles in Europe.

"The Russian Foreign Ministry notes the disappearance of conditions for maintaining a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar weapons and is authorized to declare that the Russian Federation no longer considers itself bound by the relevant previously adopted self—restrictions," the Foreign Ministry's website says.

It clarifies that the actions of the West lead to an increase in missile capabilities near the Russian borders, creating a direct threat to the country's security, but the initiative of the Russian Federation to impose a reciprocal moratorium from NATO has not received support.

In accordance with the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (INF), the parties were not supposed to produce, test and deploy missiles, as well as launchers for them. At the same time, Washington announced its unilateral withdrawal from the treaty in early 2019. The Agreement expired on August 2, 2019. After that, Russia maintained unilateral self-restrictions in this area.

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