Russia dismisses US statements on violation of arms treaties

The US statements over Russia’s violation of several country’s commitments in the control over weapons, non-proliferation and disarmament are groundless, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated in comments on the corresponding report of the US State Department made public on July 12. “As in the past few years, the United States continues to make unfounded statements that Russia allegedly violates the country’s commitments under several international treaties,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stated. “In particular, Russia’s observance of the commitments, which the country assumed under the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons, is questioned again,” the Russian Foreign Ministry reported. “The proof is not produced as always. Meanwhile, the US concerns would have been eliminated long ago and completely, if the US had not blocked the creation of a verification mechanism within the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons,” the foreign ministry said. This mechanism “would permit to lift many questions, which are posed to the US over the involvement of several American organizations in a large-scale biological activity of dual purpose,” the ministry reported. “In the report the US State Department also multiplies the accusations over Russia’s alleged non-observance of the commitments under the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,” the Russian Foreign Ministry continued. “However, no party within the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons makes similar accusations against Russia. The Americans are also keeping silence to this effect in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,” it said. “It is obvious that they have nothing to say, because Russia fulfills consistently the requirements under the convention and reports regularly to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons about a significant progress in the destruction of the country’s stocks of chemical weapons (already about 74% of Russian chemical weapons are destroyed now),” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “The practice of drafting and publishing similar reports does not promote at all the shaping of an atmosphere of trust and the ensuring of progress in the sphere of non-proliferation and the control over armaments,” the ministry stated. “This report produces an impression that the US despite the changes that took place in the world continue to stay in the propagandistic grips of the Cold War,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in conclusion.