Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Says NATO Chief Has No Proof Of INF Violations

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg had not presented any evidence of Russia breaching the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st March, 2019) Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg had not presented any evidence of Russia breaching the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

"At his recent meeting with [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov in Munich, Stoltenberg failed to present evidence of Russia's alleged INF violations," she wrote on Facebook.

She was responding to an interview the NATO secretary general gave to Russian news agency Interfax earlier in the day, in which he claimed the alliance had intelligence proving that Russia violated the INF. He also said the United States saw Moscow's attempts to demonstrate its compliance as unconvincing.

Zakharova rejected these claims as a lie, saying that "NATO's arguments, as usual, boil down to 'everything [can be found] on social media' and 'only you are capable of this.

'"

The United States in February formally suspended its obligations under the 1987 US-Soviet treaty and launched the withdrawal process, which will be completed within six months unless Moscow remedies its alleged violations of the arms control deal.

The same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow also suspended its obligations under the treaty in response to the US move.

The United States has been claiming that the range of Russia's 9M729 missile violates the treaty's limits, but Moscow has denied the allegations as unsubstantiated. Russia, in turn, has complained that US defense systems in Europe were equipped with launchers capable of firing cruise missiles at ranges prohibited under the INF Treaty.