Moscow. August 9th. INTERFAX - The immediate reason that prompted the Russian side to temporarily withdraw Russian facilities from inspection activities under the DSN was the notification of the United States of its intention to conduct an inspection on the territory of Russia in the coming days, said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
"The immediate trigger was the notification received from the American side of the intention to conduct an inspection on our territory in the coming days. In the current circumstances, such a step looked in fact like an outright provocation," Ryabkov stressed, answering a corresponding question from the media.
His answer is published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Ryabkov recalled that the inspection activity under the Agreement has been suspended since the beginning of 2020 by agreement of the parties due to the coronavirus pandemic. "At the same time, a fairly dense professional dialogue was conducted through the appropriate channels on how the parties could return to the full implementation of the Agreement in terms of verification and what organizational and technical problems needed to be solved for this. Some issues have been resolved, while others have made significant progress. But a number of significant difficulties and disagreements still persisted," the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation noted.
"The point is also that against the background of what is happening now in our relations with Western countries, additional obstacles have emerged for the resumption of inspection activities under the Treaty," he continued.
"We are talking about the absence of normal air traffic due to the fault of the West, ignoring our requests to confirm the possibility of our aircraft flying with inspectors through the airspace of transit countries, visa problems during transit, difficulties with making payments for services during inspections, and so on. All this complicates, if not blocks, our ability to carry out inspections on the territory of the United States without hindrance, creates unilateral advantages for the American side. This, of course, is unacceptable," said the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation.
"These questions were put to Washington by us. All of them can and should be resolved on a mutually acceptable basis and in full compliance with the Agreement. This is what our efforts are aimed at," Ryabkov said.
The American side, according to him, "also seemed to be interested in conducting expert, depoliticized work through the channels of the Bilateral Consultative Commission on the DSNV." "The parties were working on the possibilities for holding its regular session. It seemed to us that there was an understanding that it was necessary to ensure the functioning of the verification mechanism of the Contract in strict accordance with the principles of equality and parity, to coordinate and fix the relevant parameters. Obviously, it would be logical to resume inspection activities only after that," the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation noted.
"Unfortunately, Washington, apparently, judged differently and went to an unreasonable and unnecessary aggravation. They tried to put us in front of the fact and conduct an inspection by a showdown," Ryabkov said.
"The provocativeness of this step is added by the fact that it was carried out directly during the NPT Review Conference, where one of the central places is occupied by the discussion of the issues of nuclear disarmament and strategic risk reduction. One can only guess at the true motives of the American side, but it looks like the request for an inspection was not dictated by the bona fide goals of strengthening the viability of the START Treaty and the NPT," he stressed.
