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Moscow not to bend to US diktat — Russian Foreign Ministry

The comment came in response to US plans to exert economic and military pressure on Russia over alleged breaches of the Russia-US Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
Russia's Foreign Ministry ITAR-TASS/Gennady Khamelyanin
Russia's Foreign Ministry
© ITAR-TASS/Gennady Khamelyanin

MOSCOW, December 12 /TASS/. Moscow will not bend to US diktat, Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

The Ministry’s comment came in response to US plans to exert economic and military pressure on Russia over alleged breaches of the Russia-US Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

Moscow “drew attention to remarks made by high-ranking US officials during the Congress hearings on December 10, 2014 about US plans to apply measures of economic and military pressure to Russia over alleged violations of the INF treaty by the Russian side.”

“It is regretful that Washington continues following the logic of confrontation. Our attitude to the US practice of sanctions is well-known: we consider such unilateral restrictions to be illegitimate and we are not going to obey the US diktat,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed. “As for possible military steps on which the US representatives hinted, they would have only added more tensions to the already complicated situation. As it was mentioned at the hearings, they (military steps) are unlikely to strengthen the security of the United States and its allies,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed by the Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987. In line with the treaty obligations the Soviet Union scrapped a total of 1,752 missiles and 845 missile launching systems, three facilities manufacturing missiles and launching systems and 69 operational missile bases. The United States in turn eliminated a total of 859 missiles and 283 missile launching systems, seven facilities manufacturing missiles and launching systems and 9 operational missile bases.