Russia will respond to actual moves of the U.S. following its withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) instead of the withdrawal itself, a Russian lawmaker said Sunday.
"We should respond not to the very fact of Washington's withdrawal from the treaty but to its practical steps when it is free to do whatever it wants," Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Russia's Federation Council upper parliament house, told Rossiya 24 television channel.
"As our president has said, Russia has all the military technical premises for that, its reaction will be rapid," he added.
On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Washington would pull out of the INF Treaty on account of Russia's alleged breach of the agreement.
Earlier on Sunday, a number of Russian officials warned Washington against withdrawing from the treaty, saying such moves would be very dangerous.
The INF Treaty was signed in 1987 between the Soviet Union and the United States on the elimination of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles.
Moscow and Washington have been accusing each other of violating the arms control agreement in recent years amid increasing tension between the two countries.
