Russia says it continued development of nuclear missiles during moratorium on deployment

(Reuters) -Russia kept up development of intermediate- and shorter-range missile systems during a moratorium on their deployment and now possesses a substantial arsenal of such weapons, Russian media reported late on Sunday citing Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

“When the moratorium was announced, we made it clear that it applied only to deployment, and did not mention any halt to (research and development) activities,” RIA news agency quoted Ryabkov as telling state-run Rossiya-1 state broadcaster in an interview.

“So this time was used to develop the appropriate systems and to build a fairly substantial arsenal in this area. As I understand it, we now possess it,” RIA cited Ryabkov as saying.

Earlier this month, Russia said it was lifting what it called a unilateral moratorium