U.S. to stop complying with nuclear pact with Russia after talks flop

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and head of delegation Sergey Ryabkov (L) greets U.S. delegation head Under-Secretary of State Andrea Thompson (C) and U.S. Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament Robert Wood at a Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) conference with the UN Security Council's five permanent members (P5) China, France, Russia, Britain, and U.S., in Beijing, China, January 30, 2019. [File, Reuters]

The United States will stop complying with a landmark nuclear pact with Russia as soon as this weekend after last-ditch talks with Moscow to save it fell flat, a senior U.S. arms control official said on Thursday.

Washington has long accused Russia of flouting the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), alleging that a new Russian missile, the Novator 9M729, called the SSC-8 by NATO, violates the pact, which bans either side from stationing short- and intermediate-range, land-based missiles in Europe.