Russia to keep notifying US of ballistic missile launches

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday that Moscow would continue to notify the United States of any intercontinental or submarine ballistic missile launches despite suspending the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the two countries, the Interfax news agency reported.

President Vladimir Putin announced the suspension last month of the New START deal signed in 2010, which limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads each side can deploy. In response, the United States said on Tuesday that it would stop exchanging some data on its nuclear forces with Moscow.

Ryabkov said Russia, despite the suspension, had pledged to stick to the warhead limits and would also continue to implement a 1988 agreement on the exchange of missile launch notifications, Interfax reported.

A U.S. official said last month that Russia's suspension showed it was "not a responsible nuclear power". Putin justified it by saying, without providing evidence, that the West had been directly involved in Ukrainian attacks against bases for Russian strategic bomber planes deep inside Russian territory.

He said NATO demands that Russia should allow inspections of its nuclear bases under the New START treaty were therefore absurd.

Russia said separately on Wednesday that it had begun exercises with its Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system and several thousand troops.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)