In addition to Cotton, the bill was co-introduced by senators Ron Johnson and Marco Rubio. Congressmen Ted Poe and Mike Rogers introduced companion legislation in the US House of Representatives.
"This legislation states that the Russian violation has crossed the material breach threshold allowing the United States to take steps to bring Russia back into compliance, and begin developing similar missile systems," the release said. "The steps to bring Russia back into compliance included in the legislation are: Facilitating transfer of INF-range systems to allied countries."
On Tuesday, US media reported that Russia allegedly deployed nuclear cruise missiles in violation of the INF Treaty, which prohibits the development, testing or fielding of ground-based cruise missiles with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles.
Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control head Mikhail Ulyanov told Sputnik the US media reports could not be taken seriously, since the accusations were baseless and also lacked evidence or facts.