Russia reiterated Wednesday its rejection of the US accusations of an alleged violation of the Intermediate -Range Nuclear Force Treaty (INF), for which it never submitted concrete evidence. Washington, in five years of discussions on compliance with the INF, has been unable to provide at least credible proof of its alleged violation by our country, declared Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov.
We have not received any response to the initiative formulated by our Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, to the head of the Pentagon, James Mattis, for an analysis of this issue at military expert level, said Riabkov. Russia did not manufacture or test missiles to fall within the parameters established in the INF, that is, between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, and that includes the new Russian winged missile 9M729, which has a range of 480 kilometers, he told Kommersant.
However, Washington points out, without any proof, that these winged rockets can reach a greater distance if they are supplied with the proper fuel, something that Moscow considers totally absurd.
Russia accuses the United States of violating the agreement signed in 1987. President Vladimir Putin recalled on Tuesday that the Pentagon created Aegis systems, which, based on combat ships, can launch medium-range missiles.
However, Putin denounced, the Aegis in their terrestrial version are located in Romania and Poland with the announced purpose of being part of the American anti-missile defense system in Europe, although this directly violates the INF.
Besides, Moscow indicates that the decoys used by the mentioned launch ramps to practice the interceptions have a forbidden scope by the mentioned treaty for land-based weapons.
The Kremlin also rejected the ultimatum announced by US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo last week, which gives Russia 60 days for its supposed return to compliance with the treaty.
Russia denounced that at first the White House informed about its unilateral withdrawal from the INF, but now it is trying to justify the agreement to be abandoned with the alleged Russian violation of that treaty.
