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President Vladimir Putin was due to discuss the matter in Moscow later on Tuesday with U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, John Bolton.
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| Kremlin says U.S. plan to quit flawed nuclear pact is dangerous |
Bolton visited Moscow a day after Russia said it would be forced to respond in kind to restore the military balance with the United States if Trump followed through on his threat to quit the treaty and began developing new missiles.
Signed by then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan and reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty required elimination of all short- and intermediate-range land-based nuclear and conventional missiles held by both countries in Europe.
Its demise could raise the prospect of a new arms race, and Gorbachev, now 87, has warned that unraveling it could have catastrophic consequences.
“To first reject the document and then (talk of) ephemeral possibilities to conclude a new one is a dangerous stance.”
Russia and the United States have long accused each other of violating the terms of the treaty, something they both deny.
