MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. The US-led Western countries want to completely neutralize Russia and China’s efforts to prevent an arms race in outer space, the deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, Konstantin Vorontsov, said at a round table on the militarization of outer space at the Federation Council on Thursday.

"Washington's decision to make a voluntary pledge to refrain from testing destructive direct-ascent anti-satellite missiles serves the purpose of diverting attention from the Western countries’ weapons ambitions in space. At the same time, this US initiative does not impose any prohibitions on using this, as well as other types of anti-satellite weapons. Nor are there any restrictions on the development and production of such systems. The prospects regarding the anti-satellite potential already accumulated by the Pentagon are not defined," Vorontsov emphasized.

"The underlying reason for all this is obvious. Russia and China are to be presented as irresponsible states that are testing anti-satellite systems, thus creating space debris that allegedly threaten the satellites of other countries," he continued.

Vorontsov stressed that Washington’s initiative was purely declarative and mere juggling with words.