Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the White House’s plan to build more missiles is “extremely dangerous.”
“This is an extremely dangerous intention . . . to get involved in an arms race, building up the corresponding potential of weapons,” Peskov told reporters. “I repeat: This will make the world more dangerous.”
President Trump accused Russia on Monday of violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which banned cruise and ballistic land missiles with ranges from 310 to 3,420 miles.
“Russia has violated the agreement. They’ve been violating it for many years,” Trump said. “I don’t know why President Obama didn’t negotiate or pull out. And we’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we’re not allowed to.”
The Obama administration accused Russia of cheating on the agreement in 2014, saying the Kremlin had deployed some of the banned weapons in an attempt to intimidate European countries.
“Until people come to their senses, we will build it up,” Trump said of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. “It’s a threat to whoever you want. And it includes China, and it includes Russia, and it includes anybody else that wants to play that game. You can’t do that. You can’t play that game on me.”
National-security adviser John Bolton officially informed Moscow that the U.S. is pulling out of the arms-control treaty when he met with Russian president Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin officials on Tuesday.
Trump and Putin are scheduled to meet in Paris in November to discuss the treaty, the war in Syria, and international sanctions on North Korea and Iran, among other issues.