Deputy foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov ruled out that Moscow will follow Washington’s ultimatum under the Treaty on the elimination of medium-and short-range missiles (INF).

Ryabkov was surprised that someone can “seriously think” that the Russian side will go to the US conditions.

“I exclude such an algorithm of actions [following the US ultimatum] from our side, even in a situation where we would have some roughness, in terms of its line or its argument,” Ryabkov said.

He stressed that Russia has an ” open position “on the INF TREATY, and assured that the Russian side “nothing to reproach”.

In early December, the US Secretary of state Michael Pompeo, following a meeting of NATO foreign Ministers in Brussels, said that Washington will stop fulfilling its obligations under the INF TREATY if Russia does not return to the implementation of the Treaty within 60 days. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg added that the Alliance “gives Russia the last chance to save the INF TREATY otherwise Russia will have to prepare “for a world without INF Treaty”.

In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the American side had not provided any evidence of Russia’s alleged violation of the Treaty on intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles.