MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/. Any future deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles depends on US decisions, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters.
The fate of the moratorium is in Washington's hands, he said.
"Yes, just like before. Entirely and completely, all responsibility for what is happening lies with them, and any escalation scenarios, if they start to materialize, will be a direct consequence of the reckless and, calling things by their proper names, inhumane policy that is pursued by Washington and leading European countries, which fully condone any of Kiev's most ephemeral ambitions and most criminal designs," he said in response to a question on the subject.
"The president [Russian President Vladimir Putin] said what he said. The issue of deployment is exhaustively covered in his statement. As before, what happens next depends entirely on the choice that our adversaries will make at this extremely alarming and very dangerous moment and on the policy they will pursue," Ryabkov went on to say.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier that the United States had made a mistake by unilaterally shattering the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, also known as the INF Treaty, in 2019. He stated that any future deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles will depend on the actions of the US and its satellites.
The former Soviet Union and the US signed the INF Treaty in December 1987. It banned the deployment of missile launchers, ground-based ballistic missiles and cruise missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. However, the US withdrew from the treaty in 2019. Moscow pledged not to manufacture or deploy such missiles as long as Washington refrains from deploying them in any part of the world. Ryabkov earlier said Moscow remains committed to the moratorium.