MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/. Washington has provided no evidence whatsoever that Russia tested the 9M729 missile for a range banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a joint news conference after talks with his German counterpart Heiko Maas on Friday.
"Our colleagues [the United States] say that it is important to use facts, but this is what we have been offering the Americans to do for more than one year," Russia’s top diplomat noted.
For a long period of time, they have been simply accusing us of breaching the INF Treaty, without explaining where the breach was. We practically had to pull the missile’s name out of their mouths with pincers and immediately told them that the missile did in fact exist and it had been tested. So, what is your gripe?" the Russian foreign affairs chief stated.
"We explained to the United States that the tests (of the 9M729 missile) had been conducted for the range permitted by the document. We requested that they furnish some more specific evidence," Lavrov went on to say.
‘If they are convinced that the range was breached, then, perhaps, they may have some satellite images or something else. But nothing has been provided to us," Russia’s top diplomat specified.
Moscow stands "for full transparency in the document’s observance by Russia and the United States," the Russian foreign minister stressed.
"This is exactly what we wanted to talk about at the January 15 consultations in Geneva but we were denied this in quite a rude manner," Lavrov pointed out.
"An ultimatum was advanced that only we can solve this ourselves because it is just necessary to destroy all the missiles, launchers and any related equipment, and also to ensure the regular arrival of US inspectors once every three months," the Russian top diplomat said.
"This was initially devised to create a pretext for their withdrawal from the treaty," Lavrov pointed out.
"The US said during the official contacts on disarmament issues back in October that the decision was final and irreversible, and the statement on the withdrawal was not an invitation for dialogue," Lavrov said.
On January 15, Moscow and Washington held inter-agency consultations on the INF Treaty in Geneva. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said following the meeting that the US had not even tried to bring the positions of the parties closer, making it clear that it was determined to implement its plans to destroy the accord.
Andrea Thompson, the US State Department's Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, who led the US delegation once again accused Russia of non-compliance with the accord, and said that Washington would start the process of pulling out of the INF Treaty on February 2, unless Moscow dismantled its 9M729 missile, which, according to Washington, violates the arms control deal.