MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has discussed with permanent members of Russia’s Security Council the situation in Venezuela, the United States’ plans to quit the Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty and Russia’s internal affairs, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Friday.

"The situation in Venezuela was discussed. The need was emphasized again for letting that country resolve its internal political crisis without any external intervention," he said.

"There was a detailed discussion on issues of strategic stability and international security in the context of the forecast US pullout from the INF Treaty," Peskov said, adding that "current issues of Russia’s socio-economic development were considered."

Taking part in the meeting were speakers of both houses of Russia’s parliament Valentina Matviyenko and Vyacheslav Volodin, Chief of the Kremlin Staff Anton Vaino, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, federal security service FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov, foreign intelligence SVR chief Sergei Naryshkin and special presidential representative for nature conservation, ecology and climate Sergei Ivanov.

INF Treaty

The United States for the first time accused Russia of violating the INF Treaty in July 2014. Washington has repeated the charges many times since. Each time Moscow expressed its strong disagreement and put forward its own counter-claims over the United States’ non-compliance with the agreement concluded by the Soviet Union and the United States in Washington on December 8, 1987.

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on December 4 said after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels that Washington would terminate its obligations under the INF Treaty, if Russia failed to resume compliance with the treaty within a 60-day deadline.

On January 15, 2019 Russia and the United States held inter-departmental consultations over the INF Treaty in Geneva. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said afterwards that the American side had done nothing to try to narrow disagreements. US Under-Secretary of State Andrea Thompson once again accused Moscow of violating the treaty and confirmed that Washington would start the pullout process on February 2, if Russia refused to eliminate its 9M729 missile.