MOSCOW (AA): Russia on Tuesday conducted a short-range ballistic missiletest.
The Defense Ministry said drone footage showed the test target wasdestroyed successfully.
The exercise is being seen as a retaliatory response to a cruise missiletest by the U.S. last week.
Last month, the U.S. formally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range NuclearForces (INF) Treaty following a months-long war of words between Moscow andWashington.
The treaty was signed in 1987 by then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev andU.S. President Ronald Reagan, reducing the chances of a nuclear war inEurope.
Under the treaty, both sides destroyed the whole class of intermediate- andshort-range missiles in a span of four years.
International observers fear a fresh arms race in the absence of thislandmark treaty.









