(Bloomberg) -- Russia said it will continue to observe its moratorium on the deployment of intermediate-range missiles after the U.S. tested a cruise missile following a pullout from a Cold War-era treaty that barred testing and developing the weapons.

Russia saw the U.S. move coming and it won’t let itself be dragged into a costly arms race, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, according to RIA Novosti news service. Russia will stick with its unilateral moratorium on deploying missiles that would have been banned by the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty until the U.S. fields them first.

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The U.S. conducted a flight test of a ground-launched cruise missile Sunday, sending a signal of determination to develop these weapons. The U.S. pulled out of the accord earlier this month, after accusing Russia of violating the agreement and seeking to include China’s growing arsenal into a possible new pact.

Russia denies it violated the treaty. Ryabkov said that the fact the U.S. conducted the tests weeks after formally exiting the agreement shows that work on the weapons had been underway for a long time.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alexei Anishchuk in Moscow at aanishchuk@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Scott Rose at rrose10@bloomberg.net, Gregory L. White, Tony Halpin

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