Russian diplomacy admitted on Wednesday that Russia is in open conflict with the United States and that the risk of a nuclear conflict is currently at its highest in decades.
In an intervention in Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Serguei Ryabkov accused the United States of being practically a party to the conflict in Ukraine, a country Russia invaded on February 24, 2022.
Ryabkov said the “absolutely unprecedented” hostility from the United States, the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine and the all-out hybrid war against Russia “fundamentally changed the security situation” for Moscow.
Russia is now “de facto in open conflict with the United States,” said Ryabkov, one of nine deputy ministers in the ministry headed by Sergei Lavrov.
The immediate consequence of the new situation, according to Riabkov, was the suspension of the nuclear disarmament treaty between Moscow and Washington, START III, which was decided in February by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“An agreement should have been reached earlier, but now it is impossible. Legally, the treaty has been completely suspended by us,” said Riabkov, quoted by the Spanish agency EFE.
The risk of nuclear conflict “is the highest we’ve had in recent decades,” though Russia continues to argue that “the world must be free and safe from the nuclear threat,” he added.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as START, was first signed between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1991, before the dissolution of the Soviet bloc.
In February 2021, Putin and his American counterpart, Joe Biden, extended the new nuclear disarmament treaty in effect between the two powers, which had been signed in 2010.
Moscow also announced this Wednesday that a Russian parliamentary committee has received confirmation of the existence of US and NATO military installations on Ukrainian territory, under the guise of biological laboratories.
“The commission concluded that the United States supports and develops the capacity to make components of biological weapons. And, if necessary, to produce and use them outside the national territory,” said the vice president of the Russian parliament.
According to Irina Yarovaya, North American military laboratories have been used by NATO to circumvent the requirement of “serious and verified reasons” that regulate the installation of alliance military bases on the sovereign territories of other countries.
“The facts and circumstances revealed indicate violations of the fundamental convention of the UN,” said Yarovaya, quoted by the Spanish agency Europa Press.
Under this policy, Washington can “approach Russia’s borders virtually unchecked,” he said.
Yarovaya said it was “a growing threat” not only to Russia, but also to countries where these US programs exist.
“The rapid development of biotechnologies and the grave risks of using them as biological weapons create real conditions for changing the nature of future wars and returning them to nuclear parity,” he added.
Source: DN
