Putin suspends Russian obligations in nuclear pact

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin on Monday suspended Russia's participation in a key nuclear arms treaty, following Washington's decision to withdraw from it.

Putin's decree means Russia is suspending its obligations under the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty and will continue to do so "until the U.S. ends its violations of the treaty or until it terminates."

The U.S. gave notice of its intention to withdraw from the INF a month ago, setting the stage for it to terminate in six months unless Moscow returns to compliance. Russia has denied any breaches and accused the U.S. of violating the pact.

The U.S. has accused Russia of developing and deploying a cruise missile violating provisions of the pact banning production, testing and deployment of land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 310 to 3,410 miles.

The move also reflected President Donald Trump's administration's view the treaty was an obstacle to efforts needed to counter intermediate-range missiles deployed by China, which isn't part of the treaty.

Russia has charged the U.S. has breached the pact by deploying missile defense facilities in eastern Europe to fire cruise missiles instead of interceptors -- a claim rejected by the U.S.

The collapse of the INF Treaty has stoked fears of a replay of a Cold War-era Europe missile crisis, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union both deployed intermediate-range missiles on the continent during the 1980s.

Such weapons take shorter time to reach their targets compared to intercontinental ballistic missiles, and their deployment was seen as particularly destabilizing, leaving no time for decision-makers and raising the likelihood of a global nuclear conflict over a false launch warning.

Putin has warned the U.S. against deploying new missiles in Europe, saying Russia will retaliate by fielding new fast weapons taking just as little time to reach their targets.