GENEVA, March 19. /TASS/. Deputy Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Office and other International Organizations in Geneva Alexander Deineko has rejected Washington’s claims about Moscow’s non-compliance with arms control agreements.
Speaking at a session of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Tuesday, the diplomat lambasted as "a flow of unfounded allegations" the rhetoric against Russia voiced by US Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Yleem Poblete.
"I won’t now go into detail and dwell on a verbose statement by Mrs. Poblete," the diplomat said, noting that Moscow’s principled approaches to this issue would be outlined in a speech of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at Wednesday’s session of the Conference.
"Then during the theme discussions we are ready to provide our arguments, which will vividly prove that these claims made during the speech of the high-ranking US official were unfounded and far-fetched," he said.
Earlier, Poblete accused Russia of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, poisoning former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, "invading neighboring countries" and "attempting to annex part of a neighbor’s territory."
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed by the Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987, took effect on June 1, 1988. It applies to deployed and non-deployed ground-based missiles of intermediate range (1,000-5,000 kilometers) and shorter range (500-1,000 kilometers). Washington on many occasions had accused Russia of violating the accord, but Moscow vehemently dismissed all accusations and, in its turn, expressed grievances over Washington’s non-compliance.
On February 1, US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced the suspension of Washington’s obligations under the INF starting February 2. Washington is determined to withdraw from the treaty in six months unless Russia returns to "real and verifiable" compliance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the next day that Moscow was also suspending the agreement. He handed down instructions to refrain from initiating talks with Washington on the issue and stressed that the US needed to show willingness for an equal and substantive dialogue. Putin signed a decree suspending Moscow’s compliance with the Treaty on March 4.