UNITED NATIONS, October 16. /TASS/. Russia has made it clear that it will inevitably take retaliatory measures if the US deploys intermediate-and shorter-range missiles to Europe, Vladimir Yermakov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department, said.
"Russia’s unilateral moratorium on the deployment of land-based intermediate-and shorter-range missiles is directly linked to what the US does in this regard. The unambiguous statements about the inevitability of our retaliatory measures that the Russian authorities made when announcing the aforementioned moratorium leave no room for any other interpretation," he noted in an interview with Russian reporters, when asked if Russia would deploy similar weapons in response to Washington’s potential deployment of intermediate-and shorter-range missiles in Europe.
The senior Russian diplomat stressed that the current confrontation between Russia and the US had been triggered by Washington. "In general, given the aspects of the current standoff between our countries, which was triggered by Washington, Russia has to take certain steps in the strategic field that remove, or at least reduce, the existing and emerging imbalances. In my view, such steps include the decision to deploy Russian nuclear weapons to Belarus in response to NATO’s practice of ‘joint nuclear missions,’ as well as the potential withdrawal of our ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), aimed at mirroring the stance taken on the document by the US," Yermakov emphasized.
Earelier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club that Moscow could revoke its ratification of the CTBT because the US had failed to ratify the document. It is up to the State Duma (lower house of parliament) to make a decision, the president added. State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin, in turn, said that the move to revoke CTBT ratification was fully in line with Russia’s national interests.