Russia has responded to the USA withdrawing from an arms treaty by announcing it would build more missiles. The USA suspended the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INFT) on February 1st. Russia did the same the day after. In addition, Russian media stated that Russia's military would develop a "100 megaton nuclear doomsday device" in response to the USA withdrawal. The INFT was signed in 1987 to limit the number of missiles that could hit European capitals. It banned both countries from using short- and medium-range missiles.

Russia's media have written a lot about the 100-megaton nuclear warhead. They say it is too fast for missile defense systems to spot. It is powerful enough to cause devastation and 100-meter tsunami waves, and create enough radiation to wipe out life for a thousand kilometers. One newspaper wrote: "One of the…warheads will sit off the US coast. Any US attack on Russia would be a suicidal misadventure." The paper didn't mention the concept of M.A.D. – Mutually Assured Destruction. This scenario sees both countries wiping each other out.