SOCHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd October, 2019) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that his country might deploy missiles to Asia, in a tit-for-tat response to a threat by the United States to do so within months' time.
"I said at once that we would do the same thing. But we said in advance that we would not deploy missiles � considered we ever got medium-range ground-based missiles � to those regions until US-made missiles were moved there. I said it five times. No one reacted, neither in the US nor in Europe," he said.
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in August that he wanted to have land-based missiles deployed to Asia soon. He spoke a day after the US formally pulled out of the INF missile treaty that banned such weapons.
Putin said Russia wanted to see where in Asia these missiles would be stationed and whether they would be capable of reaching the Russian territory.
"We will wait and watch their next steps. Where will they [missiles] pop up, whom and in what way will they threaten? Is it good or bad? It's very bad because there will be a tit-for-tat response. Will it do Asia any good? No, it won't. Things will only get worse. New threats will emerge. But I do hope that it was not a final decision and options for resolving this situation are still on the table," he said.
