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Russia hopes US refrain from sanctions over alleged violations of INF Treaty — diplomat

The US’ Politico reported earlier that Washington was ready to impose further sanctions on Russia over alleged violations of the INF Treaty

MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. Russia hopes the United States refrain from sanctions over alleged violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, although experience hints to the contrary, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday.

"We would like to hope that the US side refrains from such sanctions but, regrettably, our experience of work on these matters hints to the contrary," he said.

"The US administration seems to be seriously thinking about possible use of additional sanctions without any grounds whatsoever but just following the logic that has fallen short of the expectations and will continue to disprove that pressure would be able to force Russian towards concessions the US needs," he added.

"It is not the way with Russia," the Russian diplomat stressed.

The US’ Politico reported earlier that the US administration was ready to impose further sanctions on Russia over alleged violations of the INF Treaty. According to the newspaper, the sanctions would be imposed by the US Department of Commerce on Russian companies allegedly involved in the development of cruise missiles banned by the treaty. No official confirmation has come from the White House as of yet.

The United States accused Russia of violating the INF Treaty for the first time back in July 2014. After that, Washington has been repeating its accusations that have been categorically denied by Moscow as being vague. In response, Russia put forwards counterclaims against the United States concerning the treaty’s implementation.

The INF, of The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, Treaty was signed between the former Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987 and entered into force on June 1, 1988. In 1992, following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the treaty was multilateralized with the former Soviet republics - Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine - as successors. The INF Treaty covered deployed and non-deployed ground-based short-range missiles (from 500 to 1,000 kilometers) and intermediate-range missiles (from 1,000 to 5,500 kilometers). In all, the former Soviet Union eliminated 1,846 missiles, while the United States scrapped just 846 missiles.