Russia Threatens to Leave Missile Treaty

Via Times of India -

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened on Friday in talks with top US administration officials to abandon a key nuclear missile treaty, while also telling Washington to freeze plans for a European anti-missile shield.

Speaking at the start of talks with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and defence secretary Robert Gates, the Kremlin leader said the Cold War-era INF treaty limiting Russian and US shorter and medium range missiles was outmoded because other countries were acquiring such weapons.

“If we are unable to make such a goal of making this treaty universal, then it will be difficult for us to keep within the framework of such a treaty, especially when other countries do have such weapons systems,” Putin said.

Putin also urged the US delegation, which was in Moscow to address spiralling Russian-US tensions, “not to force” the planned deployment of an anti-missile system in new Nato members Poland and the Czech Republic.