WEB DESK
Russia has warned the US against deploying new missiles in Europe, threatening to retaliate in kind by targeting Western capitals with his own new weaponry.
Delivering a state of the nation address, President Vladimir Putin said the US abandoned the 1987 arms control pact to free its hands to build new missiles and tried to shift the blame for the move on Russia.
He, however, added that Russia still wants friendly relations with Washington and remains open to arms control talks.
Signed in 1987 by then US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty banned ground-launched missiles with a range of between 500 and 5,500 kilometres.