Russia warns US over threats to scrap nuclear treaty

Russia has condemned US plans to withdraw from a Cold War-era nuclear weapons treaty and threatened to retaliate for a "very dangerous step".

President Donald Trump has earlier said that he intended to terminate the thirty year old treaty.

The INF treaty was signed by us president Ronald Reagan and soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. The deal banned ground launched medium range missiles with a range between 500 km to 5500 km.

In the last five decades the US and Russia have signed a range of joint agreements to limit and reduce their substantial nuclear arsenals.

It was signed near the end of the Cold War, a period of relations between the US and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1989 marked by intense international tension and overshadowed by the threat of nuclear conflict.

Earlier also, in 2014 president Obama has accused Russia of violating the INF treaty after it allegedly tested a ground-launched cruise missile.

But later he chose not to withdraw from the treaty under pressure from the European leaders, who said such a step could restart an arms race.

The Russian Foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said "this would be a very dangerous step that, I am sure, not only will not be comprehended by the international community but will provoke serious condemnation".

He further added that the treaty was significant for international security and security in the sphere of nuclear arms, for the maintenance of strategic stability.

Ryabkov also said that Russia condemns US's attempts to gain concessions through a method of blackmail.

He further warned that if US acts clumsily and crudely and back out of international treaties, then Russia will have no choice but to undertake retaliatory measures including involving military technology.

"But we would not want to get to that stage" he added.

The last time US withdrew from a major arms treaty was in 2002, when president George W Bush pulled the US out of the anti ballistic missile treaty which banned weapons designed to counter ballistic nuclear missiles.