Russia will respond to any deployment of intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe by targeting not only the countries where those missiles are stationed, but the US itself, President Vladimir Putin said. In his annual address to parliament, Putin said Russia was not seeking confrontation and would not take the first step to deploy missiles in response to the U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will on Sunday preside over ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the World War II siege of Leningrad that claimed over 800,000 lives. Saint Petersburg formerly known as Leningrad will plunge into the atmosphere of a wartime city under siege, with authorities broadcasting air-raid warnings, radio announcements and the ticking of a metronome.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the US that if it walks-out of a-key-arms treaty and starts developing the type of missiles banned by it, Russia will do the same. The US has shared intelligence evidence with its NATO allies that it says shows that Russia's new SSC-8 ground-fired cruise missile could give Moscow the ability to launch a-nuclear-strike in Europe with little or no-notice.