...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...on Wednesday threatened to develop nuclear missiles banned under a treaty with the United States after Washington gave Moscow a deadline to comply with the key arms control agreement.
The latest spike in tensions came a day after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington would withdraw from a major Cold War treaty limiting mid-range nuclear arms within 60 days if Russia does not dismantle missiles that the US claims breach the deal.
Putin dismissed Pompeo’s statement as a smokescreen, saying Washington had already decided to ditch the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF).
"They thought we would not notice," the Kremlin chief said, claiming the Pentagon has already earmarked an amount for the development of missiles banned by the treaty. "We are against the destruction of this treaty. But if this happens, we will react accordingly."
Putin said about a dozen countries were now producing mid-range missiles of the type banned by the INF treaty.
"Apparently now American partners believe the situation has changed so much that the United States should also have such weapons. "What will be our answer? A simple one: we will also do this," Putin said.
In Brussels, EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini urged Russia and the US to save the treaty, warning that Europe
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...did not want to become a battlefield for global powers once again, as it had been during the Cold War.
Signed in 1987 by then US president Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, the INF resolved a crisis over Soviet nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles targeting Western capitals.