MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/. Washington has not presented a single shred of evidence to Moscow that might prove Russia is in breach of the Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty and at the same time refused to discuss its own violations, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told the Russian mass media in an interview. "I am unable to mention a single instance [of a violation] or piece of evidence they [the US] presented to us. There has been nothing of the sort," Patrushev said when asked if the United States had presented any proof of Moscow’s violations of the treaty. "We held meetings with our US counterparts. I met with [White House National Security Adviser John] Bolton. Russia’s president [Vladimir Putin] received him, too. We discussed that but received no evidence," Patrushev pointed out. In his opinion, Washington "needed a pretext for pulling out of the treaty, and they found such a pretext for themselves and their partners." "But we do not know anything. We do not know what we have breached. We know what the Americans have violated and we pointed to these three issues: missile launchers, target missiles and drones. But they refused to discuss their violations," Patrushev said. He said that in accusing Russia of INF violations, the United States hinted at the missile 9M729. "I believe that they spoke about it with their partners," Patrushev said. He stressed that Moscow had invited Washington to take a look at the missile "behind closed doors" to get "thorough information about it" and see for themselves that this weapon does not violate the INF Treaty. "They refused," Patrushev noted. He recalled that after that Russia arranged for an open multilateral demonstration of this missile in Patriot Park, where many foreign delegations arrived, the United States did not participate in this event and advised its NATO partners against going there, too." Withdrawing from treaties By withdrawing from arms reduction treaties, the United States seeks to ensure its global dominance, accroding to Patrushev. He pointed out that the US had first pulled out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and then out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. "Only the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) still remains in effect but they [the Americans - TASS] have already said they were considering leaving it in 2021," he noted, adding that there also was the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and "these are the aspects that still contain them [the Americans - TASS]."

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Patrushev noted that Washington was pulling out of treaties "in order to ensure its global dominance." "As long as these treaties are effective, they [the Americans] won’t dominate any part of the world. But when treaties collapse, they will deploy any number of weapons to any region, against any country they will consider to be their adversary, seeking to ensure their dominance," Patrushev said, noting that achieving dominance was the goal mentioned in many US strategic dominance. "It will lead to chaos because other countries will respond to these things and an arms race will go on," the Russian Security Council secretary pointed out. Patrushev noted that August 6 marked an anniversary of the US nuclear bombing of Japan’s Hiroshima. "Why did it happen? Because they had dominance, they knew that no country would be able to strike back. They should not be allowed to dominate and believe that no one can respond to their actions," Patrushev pointed out. He stressed that Russia’s development of new weapons "makes it possible to hold dialogue with the US and promote" Moscow’s interests. Multilateral treaty A multilateral intermediate-range and shorter-range missile control treaty should take into account the French and British arsenals, however, the United States is yet to express willingness to allow that, Patrushev said.

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