Russia may scrap moratorium on former INF pact missiles - RIA

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday that if the United States deployed medium range missiles in the Asia-Pacific then Moscow could scrap a moratorium on the deployment of short and medium range missiles, RIA news agency reported.

The United States formally withdrew from the landmark 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia in 2019 after saying that Moscow was violating the accord, an accusation the Kremlin denied.

President Vladimir Putin then proposed to the United States and several Western European NATO members that there should be a moratorium on the development of missiles previously banned by the INF treaty.