Russia and China have criticized the United States' testing of a missile banned for over three decades until the recent collapse of a Cold War-era treaty, with both countries calling it an attempt to draw them into an expensive and dangerous rush for new weapons.
Two weeks after leaving the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty banning land-based weapons ranging from 310 to 3,420 miles, the Pentagon announced Monday it tested a cruise missile in California that would have been restricted under the agreement it has accused Russia of violating. In response, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov cited President Vladimir Putin as saying Tuesday "such tests only proved that from the very start, the Americans were determined to derail the INF Treaty and were making preparations for it."
