MOSCOW--Moscow will match any U.S. move to deploy new nuclear missiles closer to Russia by stationing its own missiles closer to the United States or by deploying faster missiles or both, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department dismissed Putin's comments as "propaganda designed to divert attention from what Washington alleges are Moscow's violations of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
Putin said Russia was not seeking confrontation and would not take the first step to deploy missiles in response to Washington's decision this month to quit a landmark Cold War-era arms control treaty. But in his toughest remarks yet on a potential new arms race, he said Russia's reaction to any deployment would be resolute and that U.S. policymakers, some of whom he accused of being obsessed with U.S. exceptionalism, should calculate the risks before taking any steps.
"It's their right to think how they want. But can they count? I'm sure they can. Let them count the speed and the range of the weapons systems we are developing," Putin told Russia's political elite to strong applause.
"Russia will be forced to create and deploy types of weapons which can be used not only in respect of those territories from which the direct threat to us originates, but also in respect of those territories where the centres of decision-making are located," he said. "These weapons, by their tactical and technical specifications, including their flight time to the command centres I’m talking about, will fully correspond to the threats that will be directed against Russia."
The U.S. 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.
Russian nuclear missiles already target the United States and vice versa. Putin's statement is likely to evoke memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 when the then Soviet Union responded to a U.S. missile deployment in Turkey by sending ballistic missiles to Cuba, sparking a standoff that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Washington said this month it was suspending its obligations under the 1987 INF treaty because of what it said were Moscow's violations, starting the process of quitting it and untying its hands to develop new missiles. Any U.S. move to place new missiles in Europe would cut the time it took some U.S. missiles to reach Moscow to 10-12 minutes, Putin said, something he called a serious threat. Such a scenario, if left unmatched, would open up the possibility of Russia being hit by a nuclear strike before its own missiles fired in response could reach U.S. territory.
