Putin announced the need to produce medium- and short-range missiles
Vladimir Putin proposed to resume the production of INF strike systems, since the United States actively uses and produces such weapons. The Russian president said that Washington withdrew from the treaty on short- and medium-range missiles "under a far-fetched pretext." Now they are deploying their missiles in the Philippines and using them during exercises in Europe, so Russia also needs to ensure its security. Details can be found in the material of "Gazeta.Ru».
Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with members of the Security Council, noted that the country needs to start producing medium- and short-range land-based missiles in response to the actions of the United States.
At the very beginning of his speech, Putin stressed that the Russian Federation's moratorium on the deployment of INF is now unilateral. The Russian leader noted that the United States is now not only producing similar systems, but also deploying them in other countries.
So, their missiles are located in the Philippines, in addition, weapons were recently brought to Europe for exercises:
"As you know, a few years ago, the United States withdrew from this treaty under a far-fetched pretext and announced that they would produce such missile systems. In 2019, we announced that we would not produce these missiles and would not deploy them until the United States deployed these systems in some region of the world."
According to Putin, Russia must respond to such steps and decide what to do next in this direction.
Rockets in Japan
In 2023, the Japanese publication Sankei Shimbun reported that the United States had asked Japan for permission to deploy medium-range missiles on the country's islands, ostensibly to balance forces with China. It is assumed that the base will be a number of archipelagos around Japan, Taiwan, the exact location is unknown. Japan has expressed its readiness to host American weapons.
In August of this year, Nikolai Nozdrev, director of the third Asia Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with RTVI that Russia would take such a deployment into account in its defense strategy.
"It is quite obvious that if a decision is made to deploy medium-range and shorter-range missiles on the territory of Japan, this will pose a serious threat to neighboring states. This, of course, will require consideration, including in the defense strategy of the Russian Federation regarding the security of its Far Eastern borders," the diplomat said.
Nozdryov added that such situations have appeared repeatedly, so the United States is really talking about deploying its weapons on the territory of other countries.
INF Liquidation Agreement
On December 8, 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan signed an Agreement on the Elimination of Intermediate-range and Shorter-range missiles during a Soviet-American meeting in Washington. According to the document, the parties undertake to destroy the complexes within three years and no longer produce such weapons, test them or deploy them. The USA and the USSR allocated inspectors who monitored the progress of the fulfillment of obligations on the opposite side. By June 1991, the Union had destroyed 1,846 missile systems, and the United States had destroyed 846.
In the 2000s, the United States deployed anti-missile launchers in Europe, which can be used to deploy cruise missiles similar in characteristics to the INF. Russia regarded this as a violation of the treaty. In 2013, the United States began testing the AGM-158B cruise missile, and in 2017, then-American President Donald Trump signed a bill that allocated $25 million for the development of such weapons.
The United States also accused Russia of violating the agreements. Allegedly, the Russian Federation conducted tests of medium-range cruise missiles.
On January 15, 2019, negotiations took place in Geneva, which ended in failure. On February 1 of the same year, Trump announced his withdrawal from the agreement. The next day, Putin also said this.
"Many countries have developed and continue to develop this type of weapon, but Russia and the United States have not, we voluntarily limit ourselves in this. This state of affairs, of course, may raise questions, of course. It was necessary for our American partners to say so, to be honest, and not use far-fetched accusations against Russia to justify their unilateral withdrawal from the Treaty," Putin said in a message to the Federal Assembly in 2019.
Alyona Fomina
