Russian Foreign Ministry Believes US May Deploy Medium, Short-Range Missiles In Europe

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th December, 2018) The Russian side can not rule out that Washington will deploy medium-range and shorter-range missiles in Europe, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview.

"Even assuming that Washington and its allies have no such plans today, we cannot rule out the emergence of such ideas and plans tomorrow - taking into account deep deterioration of security conditions in the Euro-Atlantic, the steady anti-Russian sentiment of the US Congress and the prevailing Russophobic manifestations in NATO," Ryabkov told the Kommersant newspaper, when asked whether Moscow believed the assurances of NATO and the United States that they had no plans to deploy medium-range and short-range missiles in Europe.

Agreements with Western states do not guarantee anything, the deputy minister noted.

"It is clear that political agreements and even legally binding agreements also cannot give a full and indefinite guarantee in the current environment, as we see with the example of the withdrawal from the INF Treaty by Washington," the diplomat said.

In recent years, Moscow and Washington have regularly accused each other of violating the INF Treaty. Russia has repeatedly stated that it strictly complies with its obligations under the contract. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has noted that Moscow has very serious questions regarding the implementation of the treaty by the United States. In early December, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States would suspend its adherence to the INF Treaty within 60 days unless Russia returned to full compliance with the agreement.

Moscow has repeatedly refuted US allegations that Russia has violated the 1987 INF treaty, which bans ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (311 to 3,417 miles). In turn, Moscow has complained that launchers on US defense systems in Europe can fire cruise missiles at ranges that violate the INF's terms.