Russia drops missile deployment moratorium amid tensions with Trump admin

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that NATO is to blame for Moscow’s decision to withdraw from a longstanding moratorium on missile deployment.

Russia’s foreign ministry announced earlier this week that it would no longer be bound by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The U.S. had withdrawn from the treaty in 2019, but Russian officials had said they would avoid deploying short- and medium-range nuclear missiles so long as the U.S. did the same.

“The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement on the withdrawal of the moratorium on the deployment of medium- and short-range missiles is the result of NATO countries’ anti-Russian policy,” Medvedev posted Sunday on X.

“This is a new reality all our opponents will have to reckon with. Expect further steps,” he added.

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Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had initially floated dropping the moratorium in December, citing alleged “destabilizing actions” by the U.S. and NATO.

“Since the situation is developing towards the actual deployment of U.S.-made land-based medium- and short-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian Foreign Ministry notes that the conditions for maintaining a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar weapons have disappeared,” the ministry said in a statement at the time.

The INF treaty, signed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, eliminated an entire class of weapons – ground-launched missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.

Medvedev’s latest comments come amid an ongoing back-and-forth with President Donald Trump. The former Russian president had goaded Trump in a series of posts on X, claiming the U.S. was moving toward “war” with Moscow.

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In response, Trump announced that the U.S. was redeploying two nuclear submarines to “appropriate regions” closer to Moscow.

The Kremlin released a statement downplaying Medvedev’s comments soon afterward.

“We approach any statements related to nuclear issues with great caution,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. “As you know, Russia holds a responsible position. President Putin’s stance is well known.” 

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“Russia takes the issue of nuclear non-proliferation very seriously,” he added. “And, of course, we believe that everyone should be extremely careful when it comes to nuclear rhetoric.”

Reuters contributed to this report