Russian leader’s flexing muscles

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has sternly warned the US against deploying new missiles in Europe, saying Russia would answer in kind by fielding weapons that would take just as little time to reach their targets.

Speaking in his state-ofthe-nation address, Mr Putin charged that the US had abandoned a key arms-control pact to free its hands to build new missiles and tried to shift the blame for the move to Russia.

“Our American partners should have honestly said it instead of making unfounded accusations against Russia to justify their withdrawal from the treaty,” he said.

The US has accused Russia of breaching the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty by deploying a cruise missile that violates its limits – which Moscow has rejected.

The INF treaty bans production, testing and deployment of land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with range of 500km-5500km.

The US on February 1 said it would withdraw from the treaty within six months unless Moscow fell into line.

Central to the dispute is the capacity of intermediate-range weapons, which take a shorter time to reach their targets than their intercontinental ballistic cousins.

In his speech, Mr Putin (pictured) reaffirmed Russia would not be the first to deploy such missiles but warned of a quick retaliation if the US sited their batteries in Europe. “They will only take 10-12 minutes to reach Moscow,” he said. “It’s a very serious threat to us, and we will have to respond.”

He didn’t directly mention the US but noted that the Russian response would be “asymmetrical”.

“Russia will be forced to create and deploy new types of weapons that could be used not only against the territories where a direct threat to us comes from, but also against the territories where decisionmaking centres directing the use of missile systems threatening us are located,” he said.

“The capability of such weapons, including the time to reach those centres, will be equivalent to the threats against Russia.”

A US State Department spokeswoman dismissed Mr Putin’s comments as “propaganda”.

“President Putin’s remarks are a continuation of Russia’s propaganda effort to avoid responsibility for Russia’s actions in violation of the INF,” she said.