Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova encourages U.S. general to try making factual statements about Russia
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova is relentless.
Do you remember Dana Perino? Was she even able to form complete sentences?
Maria scores about 1,000 touchdowns at each press briefing she holds. We're literally backed-up with Maria scoops.
Here's the latest.
In response to statements made by Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Paul J. Selva about Russia "violating" the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Zakharova urged Washington to stop speaking out of its cornhole:
Such statements are certainly disappointing. As you know, this is not a new story. An informed person representing the military leadership of a major country should have known better. In particular, he could have finally explained what exactly they consider our “violations” to be and how they came to this conclusion.
However, this is not the first time that public accusations of Russia’s non-compliance with the INF Treaty are not backed up by any evidence. They seem to be following what has already become a familiar pattern – making claims and immediately evading any specificity.
We have repeatedly affirmed our commitment to the INF. We explained to the US side that all missile tests in Russia are in compliance with the Treaty. During all negotiations, consultations and meetings we asked them to list Russia’s specific actions that are causing concern in Washington. Invariably, we got little in response except vague proposals to guess what they meant. This hardly seems like a serious approach.
Indicatively, though, the Americans are threatening to retaliate for Russia’s mythical violations with certain steps of a military nature. The very fact that US representatives are persistently using such rhetoric, without bothering to bring any evidence or specific examples whatsoever, raises questions about the purpose of these false media narratives.
At the same time, the Americans stubbornly refuse to discuss our well-founded claims concerning their own compliance with the INF Treaty. I am referring to the Mk-41 vertical launching units in the Aegis Ashore ground-based anti-missile systems, which the United States has deployed in Romania and plans to deploy in Poland, and which can reasonably be considered cruise missile launchers. The large-scale programme of building ballistic missile targets for missile defence-related applications, with similar characteristics to intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles, is also causing a lot of questions. In addition, the United States produces and uses unmanned combat air vehicles, which fit the definition of ground-based cruise missiles contained in the INF Treaty.
Once again, we suggest abandoning this unsubstantiated rhetoric and public accusations without specific examples in favour of a substantive dialogue aimed at addressing existing concerns and clarifying potential points of disagreement. All the mechanisms are there. We are open to such a dialogue through the appropriate channels.
We love the last bit. "All the mechanisms are there" to not lie about Russia.
Zakharova knows how to dish it out.
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
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