MOSCOW, June 10. /TASS/. Moscow dismisses the United States’ accusations of severing dialogue on missile defense systems, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharovs said on Friday.
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"I am speaking about constant accusations that Moscow was the one to stop dialogue on missile defense systems. It is not true," she said. "It was the United States to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty back in 2001."
"In May 2016, Pentagon once again categorically turned down any possibility of issuing legal guarantees that its missile defense systems are not targeted against Russia," she said. "Concurrently, it named Russia among the most serious threats to the United States."
"Russia has never closed the door to dialogue [with the United States on missile defense - TASS]," Zakharova stressed. "Meaningful dialogue in this format, in particular on missile defense, has been completely rolled back by the West which is led by the United States."
"The American side is aware of these facts and circumstances [of severing the missile defense dialogue - TASS]. We don’t understand where this striving to shift responsibility created by Washington on us stem from. It looks at least strange," she said.
"These actions are meant to gloss over the results of the foreign policy activities of the outgoing U.S. administration which has only aggravated problems in the area of missile defense rather than solved them," the Russian diplomat underscored.