Kremlin: president’s address cannot be considered as beginning of arms race

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly has no militaristic nature while the new types of weapons that were shown are a guarantee of maintaining nuclear parity in the world, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"This cannot be considered in any way as the beginning of an arms race, because this is nothing else but Russia’s response to the dismantling of the ABM Treaty and the withdrawal of the United States from the ABM Treaty and its response to the quite active process of creating the global missile shield, which was obviously able in a perspective to disrupt the strategic parity, the nuclear parity and actually neutralize the strategic forces of the Russian Federation," Peskov stressed.

He noted that the new types of weapons shown in a video during the delivery of the address "are a guarantee of maintaining strategic parity, which is necessary in the interests of peace in the entire world and in the interests of stability."

"Russia has no plans to be drawn into any arms race," TASS cited the spokesman as saying.