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The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino, Presidential Aide Nikolai Patrushev, Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin, and Special Presidential Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology, and Transport Sergei Ivanov.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.

Today, we will review the steps the Russian Federation should take regarding the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of ground-based intermediate- and shorter-range missiles.

As you are aware, several years ago, under a far-fetched pretext, the United States withdrew from this treaty and announced that they would start producing these missile systems.

In 2019, we announced that we would neither produce these missiles, nor deploy them as long as the United States does not deploy such systems anywhere around the globe.

We now know that the United States is not only producing these missile systems, but has brought them to Europe, Denmark, to use in exercises. Not long ago, it was reported that they are in the Philippines. It is unclear whether they have taken these missiles out from the Philippines or not.

In any case, we need to respond to this and decide on our further steps in this regard. It appears that we need to begin producing these attack systems and then, based on the actual situation, decide on where to deploy them to ensure our security, if necessary.

I would like the Foreign Minister and the Defence Minister address these points. Let’s get to work. Mr Lavrov, the floor is yours.

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