US’ attempts to blame Russia for carrying out “zero yield” nuclear tests are unacceptable and completely baseless with no grounds, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday according to Tass.
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“The US continues making groundless accusations over Russia’s violation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty,” the ministry said, commenting on the June 13 statement of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
“We once again emphasise that all such charges are absolutely baseless. They can be only considered as “a cover-up” for Washington’s plans to leave the CTBT and continuing full-fledged nuclear tests,” the ministry said.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Washington has not even bothered to invent at least a new scheme for fulfilling its plans and has almost completely repeated its steps on withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. “Apparently, soon we should expect a statement of the US administration that it does not consider it possible to remain in the CTBT, which is allegedly violated by other parties.”
Thus, the Foreign Ministry emphasizes that another crucial international treaty that is an essential element of ensuring safety and stability for the overwhelming majority of its participants, including Russia, has become “another object of the destructive US policy on undermining the international architecture of agreements in the sphere of non-proliferation and arms control.”
The Defense Intelligence Agency’s statement claimed that Russia has carried out nuclear tests, which caused nuclear explosions. This document was prepared to elaborate the statement made by Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Robert Ashley, who said on May 29 that “the United States believes Russia is probably not adhering to the nuclear testing moratorium in a manner consistent with the zero-yield standard.”
Russia has strongly rejected Ashley’s statement. On May 29, Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov told TASS that Russia observes the moratorium for nuclear tests. On May 31, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed the claims as nonsense
Moratorium on nuclear tests has been enforced in Russia for almost 30 years. The last such test was conducted at the Novaya Zemlya test site on October 24, 1990. Russia was one of the first countries to ratify the CTBT in 2000 and it strictly abides by its spirit and letter.
