MOSCOW. Jan 9 (Interfax) - The latest claims made by the United States Secretary of State regarding the Intermediate-range Missile Forces (INF) treaty confirm an ultimatum unacceptable for Russia, Moscow sees no readiness in Washington for dialogue on this topic, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Interfax.
"We certainly took note of these remarks, accompanied by the U.S. mentioning that 30 days remained to the deadline set by the Americans themselves for Russia to meet the U.S. requirements relating to the INF treaty. This is none other than a confirmation of an unacceptable ultimatum for us," Ryabkov said on Saturday.
"The U.S. side is reproducing the well-known charge against us that Russia is supposedly not complying with the INF treaty, and claims have been made that the U.S. would be ready to continue the dialogue. We are not seeing such readiness yet," Ryabkov said.
"Moreover, the U.S. has stubbornly pursued the discussion of this topic in the public domain, although we repeatedly called on them, and still do, including recently, having signaled them that all problems should be discussed via the specifically designed channels and formats," he said.
"We are not seeing U.S. readiness to follow this call. Of course, this frustrates us," he said.
Such actions have convinced Russia that "Washington is absolutely clearly determined to kill off the treaty," he said.
"The entire responsibility for the consequences of this move, the destructive consequences for the overall European security will lie with the U.S. We are also warning [Europe] about it," Ryabkov said.
Earlier this week Pompeo said that Russia had still failed to fulfill its INF obligations but Washington would continue trying to persuade Moscow to do so.
On December 4, 2018 Pompeo said the U.S. would start withdrawing from the INF treaty unless Russia complied with its provisions within two months.
The U.S. has previously accused Russia of violating the INF treaty. Russia denied the accusations. NATO said its fears were related to the characteristics of the new ground-based cruise missile 9M729 designed for the Iskander system. Moscow insisted that 9M729 was being deployed fully in accordance with Russia's obligations under the INF treaty.
For its part, Russia has accused the U.S. of violating the treaty with deployment of its universal missile launchers Mk 41 in Romania and Poland.