MOSCOW, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Russia has no intention to alter its military doctrine despite the U.S. plan to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Friday.
Ryabkov said the Russian military doctrine includes two scenarios where Russia may use nuclear weapons, both of which are "purely hypothetical."
The first scenario envisions the use of nuclear or other types of weapons of mass destruction against Russia, and the second -- an aggression against Russia with conventional weapons of a magnitude that endangers its existence, he said.
Russia will stick to this doctrine, Ryabkov said, although he admitted that Russia may react to possible changes in Europe or other regions to guarantee its own security, if the United States withdraws from the INF Treaty.
But as Russia has not yet received any official notifications of the withdrawal, this issue can only be discussed "at the level of general reasoning," the diplomat said.
Moscow continues a dialogue with Washington on the implementation of the INF Treaty and has provided rebuttals to U.S. accusations that Russia had violated the treaty, Ryabkov said.
He said that Russia believes this treaty is of great value for European, global and its own security.
The landmark INF Treaty was signed in 1987 between the Soviet Union and the United States on the elimination of intermediate-range and short-range missiles.
In October, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Washington would pull out of the INF Treaty on account of Russia's alleged breach of the agreement, which Moscow had repeatedly denied and warned against a new nuclear arms race.
