Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday that Washington must stop threatening Russia and end the demilitarization of Kyiv to preserve Russian-US relations.
According to Ryabkov, the United States “must stop pumping arms to the Kyiv regime in order to maintain relations, and it should stop threatening Russia.”
A list was handed to the US ambassador in Moscow on Wednesday warning him of this Communication is about to be cut off. In this regard, he stressed that the future of relations depends on the direction Washington chooses.
The US move, according to the deputy chief of staff, will not affect Moscow’s determination to move forward towards its goals in Russia’s “special military operation”, nor to adapt to US and European sanctions imposed on it. The diplomat said it was unlikely that Washington would have a “positive effect” on Kyiv, which could lead to the normalization of US-Russian relations.
Ryabkov said Russia “cannot tolerate” the United States operating laboratories capable of developing components for biological weapons in Ukraine, which could raise concerns about violating the Biological and Chemical Weapons Convention. He stated that Russia has been working for half a year to ratify the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction. He hoped that this intention would find support at this year’s Review Conference. He accused the Americans of obstructing this process since 2001.
He reiterated Moscow’s position that Russia has neither chemical nor biological weapons, and described US President Joe Biden’s claim that the Russian side is considering deploying such assets in Ukraine as a “malicious suspicion.” The deputy minister said that the United States had not yet destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons.
Ryabkov said that there are currently no relations between Russia and NATO. Make relationship development dependent on alliance.
“We are guarding the North Atlantic allies from hasty steps that might lead to further escalation,” he added.
(An illustration of our photo.)
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