Russia is not willing to get dragged into a new arms race but it must ensure its security, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published Thursday (July 4).
According to the interview posted on the Kremlin website, Putin
said the United States had a military budget of more than US$700 billion,
compared with Russia's roughly US$48 billion.
"That is why we had to
develop advanced weapons and equipment -- in response to the increasing
military expenditure and the clearly destructive actions of the United
States," said the president.
Putin said it was not Russia
but the United States that started the breakdown of the international security
system by unilaterally withdrawing in 2002 from the Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty, the cornerstone of the entire arms control architecture.
Russia approached the United
States more than once, suggesting that both sides sort out issues concerning
the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, but was refused, he said.
Washington does not seem
ready to discuss the extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that
will expire in early 2021 or the possibility of elaborating a new full-scale
agreement, the Russian president said.
"Last October, we
offered the United States to adopt a joint statement on the inadmissibility of
a nuclear war and the recognition of its devastating consequences. There has
been no response," Putin said.
The US administration has
recently begun to reflect on the possibility of restarting dialogue with Russia
on a broad strategic agenda, and reaching concrete agreements in the field of
arms control would help improve international stability, he said.
"Russia has the
political will to do this. Now it is for the United States to make a
decision," Putin said, adding that he reiterated this position at a recent
meeting with US President Donald Trump in Osaka, Japan.
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