The Russian president delivered his state-of-the-nation address on Wednesday. He accused the US of unilaterally withdrawing from the INF treaty and said he would target the US if it deployed missiles in Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced new Russian weapons would target the US if it deploys missiles to Europe.
At his state-of-the-nation speech, he announced Russia was developing a new hypersonic missile for the navy and that Russia was building a new submarine with a drone complex capable of hitting both land and sea targets.
He said Russia was not seeking confrontation despite the US withdrawing from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), but that it would deploy missiles if the US chose to do so.
He warned US policy-makers, “obsessed” with US exceptionalism, should calculate the risks before taking any steps.
“It’s their right to think how they want. But can they count? I’m sure they can. Let them count the speed and the range of the weapons systems we are developing,” Putin told Russia’s political elite to strong applause.
“Russia will be forced to create and deploy types of weapons which can be used not only in respect of those territories from which the direct threat to us originates, but also in respect of those territories where the centers of decision-making are located,” he said.
The US has alleged since 2013 that Russia was developing a new ground-launched cruise missile which violated the INF treaty that prohibits missiles with ranges between 500 kilometers and 5,500 kilometers.
Russia long denied that it had built such missiles but recently acknowledged their existence, albeit saying that the missiles did not violate the terms of the treaty.
A senior US administration official said that any new missiles were still in the research and development phase.
Domestic issues, rail to Crimea
The majority of Putin’s speech was spent on domestic issues. He called for more social and economic development and proposed tax breaks for families with children, noting that Russia’s birthrate is falling.
He repeated last year’s statistics, saying that 19 million people lived in poverty and said that government should provide assistance or training to help people get out of poverty. He also proposed creating 1 million vocational jobs for students.