MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian former President Dmitry Medvedev blamed NATO countries on Monday for the abandonment of a moratorium on short- and medium-range nuclear missiles and said Moscow would take further steps in response.

Russia has declared it's no longer considers itself bound by a self-imposed moratorium on deploying nuclear-capable intermediate range missiles, a warning that potentially sets the stage for a new arms race as tensions between Moscow and Washington rise again over Ukraine.

President Donald Trump’s trusted foreign envoy Steve Witkoff is due in Moscow on Wednesday after the Kremlin requested a meeting with him in a last-ditch effort to avoid the punishing new sanctions Trump has threatened to impose this week,

The first official statement from the Kremlin about Trump’s move seemed to distance Russian President Vladimir Putin from Dmitry Medvedev’s inflammatory comments.

President Trump said Friday the U.S. is positioning two nuclear submarines in “appropriate regions” near Russia, a move he blamed on threatening rhetoric from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,