MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Russia has never had and doesn’t have ground-based shorter-and intermediate-range missiles, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.
"I would like to stress that Russia has never had and doesn’t have ground-based shorter-and intermediate-range missiles. To say otherwise means to create a knowingly false picture, to justify those who is to blame for the breakdown of the INF Treaty," he said in a video address to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
The minister recalled that in order to ensure the predictability and restraint in the missile sphere in the absence of the INF Treaty, Russia has unilaterally undertaken not to be the first to deploy systems falling under the treaty in those regions where similar US-made systems are not deployed. "We call on the United States and its allies to follow our lead," Lavrov added.