Moscow reacts to U.S. State Dept report on arms control

(Interfax – July 19, 2013) The arms control report of the U.S. Department of State does not help create an atmosphere of trust or make real progress in non-proliferation and arms control issues, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“In fact, the new report gives an impression that the United States is stuck in the vise of Cold War propaganda although the world has long since changed,” says a report published on the ministry website on Friday.

“The stubborn wish of our American partners to judge and brand others is being accompanied with the persistent unwillingness to look in the mirror,” it said.

“In short, the practice of drafting and posting such reports does not help create an atmosphere of trust or advance practical issues of non-proliferation and arms control,” the report said.

The U.S. report, which assesses the fulfillment of arms control obligations by other states, continues to make unfounded allegations that Russia is breaching its commitments with regard to certain international treaties, the ministry’s information and press department said.

“For instance, they once again cast doubt upon Russia’s compliance with the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction. There is no evidence to support the allegations as always. Yet the U.S. concerns could have been alleviated a long time ago if the United States had not been blocking the development of a verification mechanism of the Convention,” it stressed.

There is also no documentary evidence to prove that every site under the U.S. jurisdiction or control, which used to be a part of military biological programs, is either destroyed or re-focused to civilian projects consistent with the Convention’s Article 2. Biological operations of the U.S. Department of Defense near the Russian borders are a source of very serious concerns, as well, the department said.

Russia unwaveringly meets its commitments and posts regular reports about the destruction of its stocks of chemical weapons to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), it noted.

“That is being done against the backdrop of the practical suspension of the scrapping of chemical munitions in the United States, including the postponed construction and commissioning of plants to deal with the remaining substantial amounts of chemical weapons,” the department said.

“As to the report’s references to Georgia, it would be correct to remind [the United States] about the reality that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are sovereign states. The reluctance to come to terms with this [reality] will have a negative effect on the control of conventional arms in Europe and the further operation of the mechanism strengthening military security and confidence in Europe, the Open Skies Treaty,” it said.