MOSCOW, August 4. /TASS/. Moscow calls on Washington to stop vilifying its foreign policy line in the Balkans, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday in a comment on a number of claims U.S. Vice President Michael Pence had made earlier in the same day in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro.

"The U.S. Vice President has again made public a series of anti-Russian statements as he tried to scare the leaders of West-Balkan nations with the mythical Russian, reaching a point where he accused Russia of attempts to forcibly redraw the borders between countries in the region," the commentary said.

"With much sadness, we have to state Washington is sinking deeper and deeper into the primitive ideologically-tainted formulas of the Cold War era that are a wide cry from reality," it said.

"Imposition of a destructive alternative suggesting ‘either with the West or with Russia’ will inevitably push up tensions in Europe and will destabilize the situation in the region on the whole and in separate countries," the commentary said.

"Along with it, the U.S. is actively peddling the thesis that there is no alternative for South-Eastern Europe to joining NATO," the ministry said. "This goes along with the superimposing of projects based on unscrupulous competition and contradicting the logic of economy."

Moscow recalled in this connection that it was the U.S. and its allies who crudely violated international law in 1999 and purported an illegitimately use of force to tear Kosovo away from Serbia.

"As a result, one more hotbed of conflicts emerged in Europe," the commentary said. "Under tough pressing from Washington, the Montenegrin government formalized the country’s membership of NATO on June 5, 2017, contrary to the will of the majority of citizens there."

"The U.S. and the EU defiantly ignored the will of voters in Macedonia by making it impossible for the party, which won the December 11, 2016, election, to form the cabinet," the ministry said.

"So who is interfering in the internal affairs and using force in the Balkans, Moscow or Washington?"

"We call on our U.S. counterparts to stop vilifying Russia and its foreign policy, which is always based on respect for partners and readiness for fruitful work, as well as on the mutual account of interests," the commentary said.