Putin vows to consider deploying nuclear weapons near NATO countries

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced his intention to consider placing new nuclear missiles near NATO countries.

Earlier this month, Putin warned the West that Moscow could supply weapons to other countries to strike Western targets in retaliation for allowing Ukraine to fire long-range missiles supplied by NATO military forces at targets in Russia.

His latest announcement on Friday is seen as the Russian leader's latest attempt to respond to the escalating conflict with the West after signing a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement during his historic visit to Pyongyang, aimed at finding new ways to defend non-Western countries against American hegemony.

Putin has promised that his country will produce new intermediate-range nuclear missiles and then decide whether to deploy them within range of NATO countries in Europe, as well as U.S. allies in Asia.

The Russian leader blamed the Russian decision on the United States, which has deployed nuclear missiles in Europe and Asia.

Under the US presidency of Donald Trump, Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

The INF Treaty prohibits the production, testing and deployment of land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.

The withdrawal from the treaty is part of a series of withdrawals that have marked the end of decades of nuclear arms control treaties signed by Washington and Moscow over fears of triggering a nuclear conflict between the former Soviet Union and the United States.

The only remaining arms treaty today is New START, which limits the intercontinental weapons each nation can possess.

This nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia, officially known as the Further Reduction and Limitation Measures on Strategic Offensive Arms, was signed on April 8, 2010, entered into force in February 2011, and expires in February 2026.

During the Cold War, the United States and the former Soviet Union gradually developed common views and interests, prompting both sides to sign treaties governing nuclear technologies and materials and to seek cooperation and global trade in nuclear energy while preventing the proliferation of weapons.

These treaties endured after the Cold War, despite a series of global military problems and increasingly conflicting interests in international trade.

The West's gradual encroachment on Russia, culminating in Moscow's decision to launch a special military operation in eastern Ukraine in February 2022, marked the end of a decades-long tradition of cooperation between Washington and Moscow to prevent a possible nuclear war between the two countries.