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US targets European countries through INF Treaty withdrawal, says Russian Duma speaker

"That decision of the US ruins the global security architecture in the world that has been established for decades", Vyacheslav Volodin said

MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. The United States has targeted European countries and put global security in jeopardy through the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) withdrawal, Russia’s State Duma (lower house of parliament) Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Saturday.

"That decision of the US ruins the global security architecture in the world that has been established for decades," he was quoted by the Duma’s press service. "Without consulting the countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, without discussing it with European parliaments, America has targeted European states, put global security in jeopardy," Volodin noted.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said that Washington would suspend its liabilities under the INF Treaty starting February 2 and would quit it within six months if Russia fails to comply with its demands. The US accused Russia of violating the treaty for the first time in July 2014. Since then, Washington has been repeating its claims on many occasions, while Moscow has been rejecting them and advancing counter-claims concerning the implementation of the treaty by the US side.

The INF Treaty was signed between the former Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987 and entered into force on June 1, 1988. It covered deployed and non-deployed ground-based short-range missiles (from 500 to 1,000 kilometers) and intermediate-range missiles (from 1,000 to 5,500 kilometers).