Moscow will retaliate in kind
if US deploys new missiles in Europe, Russian president says as he addresses
the nation.
Russia's President Vladimir
Putin warned the United
States against deploying new missiles in Europe, threatening to
retaliate in kind by targeting Western capitals with his own new weaponry.
Delivering a state of the
nation address, Putin said the US abandoned a key arms control pact - the
1987 Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces treaty - to free its hands to build new missiles and
tried to shift the blame for the move on Russia.
Many analysts say abandoning
the treaty effectively signalled the start of a new arms race.
The longtime Russian leader
warned Washington against deploying any new missiles in Europe following the
collapse of the key Cold War-era treaty, saying Moscow would consider it a
"serious threat".
"I'm saying this clearly
and openly, Russia will be forced to deploy weapons that can be used... against
the decision-making centres that are behind the missile systems which threaten
us," Putin said.
"The capability of such
weapons, including the time to reach those centres, will be equivalent to the
threats against Russia."
He did not say what specific
new weapons Moscow could deploy, but he reported quick progress on an array of
new systems presented a year ago.
The INF deal was signed in
1987 by then US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and
resolved a crisis over Soviet nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles targeting
Western capitals.
New arms
Putin said the first batch of
Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles will be deployed this year.
He added the tests of the new
Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, the Burevestnik
nuclear-powered cruise missile and the Poseidon nuclear-powered underwater
drone have been progressing successfully.
The first submarine equipped
to carry the Poseidon will be commissioned later this year, Putin reported.
He also announced the coming
deployment of the new Zircon hypersonic missile for the Russian navy, saying
it's capable of flying at nine times the speed of sound and will have a range
of 1,000km.
He said the Zircon programme
will not be too costly as the missile has been designed to equip Russia's
existing surface ships and submarines.
While issuing a tough warning
to the US, Putin also said Russia still wants friendly relations with
Washington and remains open to arms control talks.
"We don't want confrontation,
particularly with such a global power as the US," he said.
The US has accused Russia
of breaching
the INF treaty by deploying a cruise missile that violates its limits
- accusations Moscow rejected.
The INF treaty banned the
production, testing and deployment of land-based cruise and ballistic missiles
with a range of 500km to 5,500km.
The intermediate-range weapons
were seen as particularly destabilising as they take less time to reach their
targets compared with the intercontinental ballistic missiles.
That would leave practically
no time for decision-makers, raising the likelihood of a global nuclear
conflict over a false launch warning.
'Unacceptable' threats
The US State Department said
Washington was not developing "exotic new nuclear weapons delivery
systems" and repeated its claim that Russia violates the INF treaty while
the United States does not.
"President Putin's
remarks are a continuation of Russia's propaganda effort to avoid
responsibility for Russia's actions in violation of the INF Treaty," added
a State Department spokeswoman on condition of anonymity.
NATO on Wednesday condemned
Putin's "unacceptable" threats.
"Russian statements
threatening to target Allies are unacceptable. We call on Russia to focus on
returning to compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces
Treaty," NATO deputy spokesman, Piers Cazalet, said in a statement.
"NATO is a defensive
alliance, which stands ready to defend all members against any threat. We do
not want a new arms race, and allies have repeatedly called on Russia to
verifiably destroy its intermediate-range missiles."
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg
has said several times in recent weeks that the alliance would not deploy any
new land-based nuclear weapons in response to the Russian missiles.
Internal audience
Putin's tough talk on missiles
seemed aimed at stirring up patriotic support for the 66-year-old leader, who
won re-election last year with more than 76 percent of the vote but has been
recently struggling with dropping poll numbers.
A survey by Russia's independent
Levada Centre released in January found his approval rating at 64 percent - a
figure many Western leaders could only dream of, but Putin's lowest in five
years.
Most of Wednesday's speech
focused on promises to address poor living standards, a key source of
frustration for many Russians nearly 20 years after Putin came to power.
"We cannot wait, the
situation must change for the better now," Putin told assembled legislators
from Russia's lower house State Duma and upper house Federation Council.
"Within this year,
[Russians] should feel changes," he said.
Putin lamented about 19
million Russians were living below the poverty line, saying: "This is too
much ... The state should help."
He focused, in particular, on
help for Russian families, pointing to a demographic crisis that has seen birth
rates fall drastically since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Last year, the government's
statistics agency said the country's birth rate had fallen by 11 percent in
2017 to the lowest level in a decade.
"The incomes of Russian
families should of course rise," he said, promising new child benefits and
lower taxes for larger families.
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