Russian President Putin signs law suspending Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty with US

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed legislation suspending a 1987 nuclear missile treaty, according to the law published on Wednesday on an official government website.

The United States is set to pull out of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) on August 2 citing Russia's development of a missile that breaks the accord.

Earlier the Russian Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, endorsed a bill suspending the country's participation in the INFTreaty signed between the former Soviet Union and the United States in 1987 on Wednesday.

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The Russian State Duma, the lower chamber of parliament, passed the bill submitted by Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 18.

Putin decided to suspend Russia's participation in the INF Treaty in February in a mirrored response to the US' decision to pull out of it within six months beginning in February.

Russia and the US have accused each other of violating the agreement in recent years amid increasing tensions.

On Tuesday, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg said at a press conference that to save the treaty Russia has until August 2 to destroy its SSC-8 missiles, which allegedly violates the treaty.

Russia has categorically rejected the accusations. It even displayed the missiles at Moscow's Victory Park on January 23. Russian officials defended that the missile has a range less than 500 kilometers, perfectly in line with the INF Treaty which defines the short range at 500 to 1,000 kilometers and the intermediate range at 1,000 to 5,500 kilometers.

Moreover, Russia has accused the US of testing drones and other systems banned by the INF Treaty.

Putin said on February 20 in an address to the Russian Federal Assembly that if the US deploys intermediate-range missiles in Europe, Russia will be forced to create and deploy weapons that can hit centres making decisions on the use of missile systems that threaten Russia.