EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is currently reviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal for a moratorium on deploying weapons previously banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, an EU official said on Thursday, Sputnik reports.
On Wednesday, Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported that similar proposals were sent to the leaders of NATO and EU states as well as some other countries.
"We can confirm that the High Representative/Vice-President [Mogherini] received a message from the Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, and we are examining it," the official said.
NATO confirmed that it had received the letter but said it did not consider the proposal credible, recalling that Russia had a missile, the SSC-8, that the alliance believed violated the now defunct INF Treaty.
The nuclear pact, signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987, was terminated on August 2 at the United States' initiative after the country formally suspended its INF obligations six months earlier. Both countries had repeatedly accused each other of violating the deal, which banned any ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,417 miles).
