Russian Foreign Ministry Says US List of Russia's INF Treaty Violations Will Lack Facts

GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd November, 2018) The list of alleged violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) by Russia will be prepared by the United States in the "highly likely" mode since it has no actual facts, Vladimir Yermakov, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control, told Sputnik on Friday.

"Just let them prepare it. But it will be done in the 'highly likely' mode. We don't work in this mode. Neither with US nor UK. They are used to working in this manner � to write about something "highly likely" and then cite this. It's not going to work out ... It's absolutely clear that Russia is fully compliant with the INF Treaty.

The American side does not have any actual facts indicating that Moscow fails to comply with the INF Treaty," Yermakov said.

Last month, Trump announced his country's intention to withdraw from the INF Treaty over alleged Russian violations of the agreement. Russian authorities, in turn, have many times stressed that their country strictly complied with the obligations outlined in the treaty.

The INF Treaty was signed in 1987 by then leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and then US President Ronald Reagan. The leaders agreed to destroy all cruise or ground-launched ballistic missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (310 and 3,400 miles).