MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax-AVN) - U.S. companies' work on new weapon designs means that the United States has decided to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty as early as several years ago, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
"The nature and the terms of the ongoing work demonstrate beyond doubt that the U.S. administration made a decision to withdraw from the INF Treaty a few years before making public its groundless accusations against Russia of violating the treaty," the Defense Ministry said.
The ministry gave the example of a Raytheon plant in Arizona producing almost all kinds of missile weapons "including short- and intermediate-range cruise missiles". In 2017, it began increasing its production capacities "in order to create the short and intermediate-range missiles prescribed by the INF Treaty," it said.
On Friday, the U.S. administration said that it is suspending honoring its obligations in the INF Treaty on February 2 and would withdraw from it if Russia does not return to honoring its in six months.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia's response to the U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty will be symmetrical. Russia is also suspending its participation in the treaty and begins developing new types of missiles.
"This is what we will do. Our response will be symmetrical," he said at a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"Our U.S. partners announced that they are suspending their participation in the INF Treaty, and we are suspending it too. They said that they are engaged in research, development and design work, and we will do the same," he said.