MOSCOW, December 2 /TASS/. The United States is using Russia’s alleged incompliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) to create an atmosphere of military tension in the Euro-Atlantic space, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
The United States accuses Russia of non-compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) to distract attention from its own INF violations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
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"We paid attention to what high-ranking State Department and Pentagon representatives said at the US Congress hearings. Once again, they accused Russia of violating the provisions of the Inter-Mediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF)," the ministry said in its statement.
"It is obvious that the authors of these insinuations have one purpose: to throw a shadow on our line in the field of arms control and at the same time distract attention from the actions of the United States, which gives an extremely free interpretation to the INF provisions when they serve as a hindrance to development of weapons, which Washington considers to be vital," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"We kept underlining Russia’s commitment to the INF Treaty. We have offered our US colleagues many times to give up methods of ‘megaphone diplomacy’ in discussing disputable issues concerning the Treaty’s implementation and pass on to a professional expert dialogue in a bilateral format which, in our view, would have suited the nature of the arising problems," the ministry said.
"However, the US side continues using unfounded accusations and evaded the discussion of ‘unpleasant’ themes," the Russian Foreign Ministry went on to say.
According to the ministry, the United States is using the artificially created frenzy over the INF to justify a wide range of long-term military programmes including those designed to modernize nuclear weapons and make it more effective as well as to build up the U.S. military presence off Russia’s borders in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.