MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. The security and anti-corruption committee of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house on Thursday recommended to pass a draft law on Russia’s suspending the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in the first reading.

"In view of the provisions of the treaty, the law’s adoption will make it possible to take response tit-for-tat measures to protect Russia’s national security interests," the committee said in a report signed by its chairman, Vasily Piskarev. "This said, the State Duma security and anti-corruption committee supports the adoption of this draft law."

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday submitted to the State Duma a draft law on suspending the INF Treaty. The Duma Council decided to consider the bill in the first reading at a plenary session on June 18.

The INF, or the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, Treaty was signed between the former Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987 and entered into force on June 1, 1988. In 1992, following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the treaty was multilateralized with the former Soviet republics - Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine - as successors. The INF Treaty 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). By June 1991, liabilities under the treaty were implemented, with the former Soviet Union having destroyed 1,846 missiles and the United States having destroyed 846 missiles.

US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced on February 1 that Washington suspends implementation of its liabilities under the INF Treaty from the following day and will quit the treaty in a six-month period unless Russia takes steps to get back to implementing the treaty’s provisions. On February 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin also announced suspension of Russia’s participation in the treaty and said Russia would not initiate talks with the United States on that matter until the US side was ripe for an equal and meaningful dialogue.