Vladimir Putin has said Russia will abandon a nuclear arms treaty just one day after the US withdrew from it.
The Russian President spoke after Donald Trump announced on Friday that he was pulling the plug on the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty over alleged Russian violations.
Moscow denied any breaches and accused Washington of making false accusations in order to justify its pull out.
Mr Putin has ordered the development of new land-based intermediate-range weapons, said Moscow will only deploy nuclear missiles if Washington does.
He said: "The American partners have declared that they suspend their participation in the deal, we suspend it as well.
"We have repeatedly, during a number of years, and constantly raised a question about substantiative talks on the disarmament issue, notably, on all the aspects.
"We see, that in the past few years the partners have not supported our initiatives."
The US suspended its compliance and has given notice that it will leave the 1987 treaty in six months.
The row over the INF treaty is yet another twist in Russia's worsening relations with the United States and the West.
China’s government has called on the two countries to preserve the treaty, saying their withdrawal might trigger "adverse consequences."
The INF Treaty was signed by US President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, and bans the development and use of ground-launched cruise or ballistic missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500km.
It has been a centerpiece of superpower arms control since the Cold War, and was the first arms control measure to ban an entire class of weapons.
