Moscow warned Sunday US President Donald Trump that his intention to step out of a nuclear treaty signed during the Cold War was "a very dangerous step."
The latest USSR leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, who signed this important disarmament treaty in 1987, denounced the "lack of wisdom" of the current US president, calling "all those who cherish a world without nuclear weapons "to convince Washington to reconsider its decision, in order to" preserve life on Earth ".
On Saturday, Trump announced that the US planned to exit the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) on intermediate-range nuclear weapons, signed at the end of the Cold War by Gorbachev and the US President. time, Ronald Reagan.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov described the decision as "not very dangerous" which he said will "not be understood by the international community and will even attract serious condemnation".
Mr Trump accuses Russia of not respecting this treaty "for many years" and announced that the United States would consequently "develop these weapons".
Riabkov on Sunday rejected the accusations: "Not only are we not violating the treaty, but we respect it in the strictest manner," he insisted. "And we have been patient over the years in the face of blatant violations of the treaty by the United States themselves," he said.
If the United States continues to act "clumsily and grossly" and unilaterally withdraws from international treaties, "then we will have no choice but to retaliate, including involving military technology" said Mr Riabkov without any further clarification to the Ria Novosti agency.
The White House advisor to National Security, John Bolton, arrived Sunday afternoon in Moscow, according to a source quoted by Ria Novosti.
"We hope he will explain to us in a more substantive and clear way, in our meetings tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, what actions the United States intends to undertake," said Riabkov.
Bolton will meet several Russian officials on Monday and Tuesday, beginning with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in preparation for a possible meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which could take place by the end of May. 'year.
The US adviser will also see the head of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and the presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov. The Kremlin also said it was "possible" for Bolton to meet with President Putin.
According to the British newspaper The Guardian, it is Mr Bolton himself who is pressuring the US president to withdraw the INF Treaty. He is also the one blocking any negotiations for an extension of the New Start treaty on strategic missiles, which expires in 2021.
Washington complains of Moscow's deployment of the 9M729 missile system, which has a Washington range of over 500 km, a violation of the 1987 INF Treaty.
This treaty, by abolishing the use of a whole series of missiles with a range of 500 to 5500 km, had put an end to the crisis triggered in the 1980s by the deployment of Soviet SS-20 nuclear warheads targeting the Western capitals.
Moscow has responded to US accusations by further accusations. Riabkov on Sunday spoke of "blackmail" and the day before, a source from the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Washington "has been approaching this stage for several years deliberately destroying the basis of this agreement step by step."
"This decision is part of the US policy of withdrawal of international legal agreements that give it as much responsibility as its partners and therefore undermines the idea of its own exception," said the source.
The US withdrawal "is the second biggest blow against the entire global stability system," said a Russian senator, Alexei Pushkov, the first being the American withdrawal in 2001 of the ABM treaty on anti-ballistic missiles.
This US measure could also have Beijing in sight: China, not being a signatory, can develop without constraint intermediate range nuclear weapons.
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