Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Sputnik that if the Washington continues to withdraw unilaterally from agreements, then Moscow will adopt a range of retaliatory measures, including military ones.

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump announced the country’s plans to exit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) treaty over alleged Russian violations of the agreement.

“The issue is too serious to be dealt with through public debate. If the United States continues to act so clumsily and harshly, as we can see it do on numerous occasions, if it continues to unilaterally withdraw from agreements, different kinds of accords and mechanisms, and the examples are piling up — from the JCPOA on Iran to the Universal Postal Union — then we will have nothing left to do but to take retaliatory measures, including ones of military and technological nature. But we would like to avoid that. The US clumsy and harsh politics sees more and more rejection in a lot of countries and wide circles of international community. Washington should not underestimate these shifts in sentiment,” Ryabkov said.

“We are treating with concern and condemnation the United States’ new attempts to force Russia to make concessions in the sphere of international security and strategic stability via blackmailing. The Russian side has repeatedly said that the US side has no reasons for accusing Russia of allegedly violating this treaty. After all these years, they have failed to substantiate their fanciful claims by clear explanations why they are doing this,” Ryabkov added.

Source: Sputnik