President Vladimir Putin warned the United States on Friday that Russia may quit a Cold War treaty on intermediate missiles if it is not expanded to impose arms restrictions on other states.
Putin used the start of talks with US Secretary of States Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates to say the US-Russian treaty's restrictions were leaving Moscow unable to respond to military build-ups in countries near its borders. Russia has already alarmed some in the West by saying it will suspend compliance with another Cold War treaty on conventional forces in Europe later this year.
"We need other international participants to assume the same obligations which have been assumed by the Russian Federation and the US," said Putin, who met Rice and Gates at his residence just outside Moscow. "If we are unable to attain such a goal ... it will be difficult for us to keep within the framework of the treaty in a situation when other countries do develop such weapons systems, and among those are countries in our near vicinity."
Putin did not specify which treaty he was talking about, but he appeared to be referring to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). That treaty was signed in 1987 by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan.
Russian officials have said in the past they may review the treaty because of concerns about growing arsenals in countries on its eastern and southern flanks, including Iran, India and Pakistan.