Lavrov: Russia retains its right for tit-for-tat response to U.S. missiles deployment

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Russian side reserves the right to deploy missiles in any region in response to similar steps from the U.S.

Lavrov cited Russian President Vladimir Putin saying that Moscow would respond in kind in the wake of the crisis around the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

"The president emphasized that in case the United States, after quitting the treaty and consequently taking the shackles off, started deploying still banned missiles in any part of the world," Lavrov stressed.

"Wherever these U.S.-made missiles would appear, we would retain the right to do the same so that our missiles would appear in that very region," TASS cited the Russian top diplomat as saying.