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MOSCOW, Feb. 2-- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Russia will suspend its participation in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in a mirror response to the United States' decision. "We will come up with a tit-for-tat response. American partners have announced the suspension of their participation in the treaty, and we are suspending it as well," Putin said at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The Trump administration announced Friday that the United States is withdrawing from the INF Treaty with Russia within six months, starting from Feb. 2. U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that his country will "move forward with developing our own military response options." The United States "will work with NATO and our other allies and partners to deny Russia any military advantage from its unlawful conduct," said Trump. Moscow is concerned over the U.S. military's task to create low-power nuclear munitions and Washington's possible plans to use it on medium-range missiles, Lavrov said Saturday at the meeting with Putin and Shoigu, according to Sputnik. "We are also concerned about the fact that recently, a year ago, the U.S. 'Nuclear Posture Review' set the task to create low-power nuclear munitions, which will probably be used on medium-range missiles," Lavrov said. Noting that the United States has begun developing and manufacturing weapons, Shoigu proposed to develop new arms including ground-based complexes of hypersonic medium- and shorter-range ballistic missiles. Shoigu's proposal has Putin's support. | 
