#9
RUSSIA REAFFIRMS DISLIKE OF U.S. PULLOUT FROM ABM

MOSCOW, May 23. /From a RIA Novosti correspondent/ -- On eve of the Russian-American summit in Moscow, Russia reaffirms its negative approach towards the United States' withdrawal from the antiballistic missile treaty. "We do not back this decision and believe that all responsibility for it lies with the United States", said a high-ranking official source in an interview on Thursday to Russian news agencies.

At the same time, the sources said that "the United States' withdrawal from the ABM treaty is not the end of everything", the RIA correspondent reports.

"What's more, this American initiative is not an impasse for Russia. We get a free hand, including for reciprocating in the sense of perfecting our own nuclear triad", noted the source.

He believes that such measures will be asymmetric, much less expensive and, at the same time, ensure national security. "We have enough time and opportunities for that", said the source.

He doubted that the United States would get down deploying its ABM very soon. Most probably, tests of land, air and sea systems will not be over before the end of this decade, believes the source.

According to him, mutually acceptable solutions have to be found which would make it possible to go on strengthening relations and trust between Moscow and Washington. The source recalled that Moscow and Washington are setting up a high-level consultative group on confidence-building in the ABM field.

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