Russian diplomacy has admitted that Russia is in open conflict with the United States and that the risk of a nuclear conflict is currently the highest in decades.
In an intervention in Moscow, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Serguei Ryabkov accused the United States of being practically a party to the conflict in Ukraine, a country that Russia invaded on February 24, 2022.
Ryabkov said the “absolutely unprecedented” level of hostility by the United States, the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine and the all-out hybrid war against Russia “fundamentally altered 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 led by Serguei Lavrov.
According to Riabkov, the direct consequence of the new situation was the suspension of the nuclear disarmament treaty between Moscow and Washington, START III, decided by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February.
“An agreement should have been reached earlier, but now it is impossible. From a legal point of view, the treaty was completely suspended by us”, said Riabkov, quoted by the Spanish agency EFE.
The risk of nuclear conflict “is the highest we have had in recent decades”, although Russia continues to assert 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 for five years the new nuclear disarmament treaty in force between the two powers, which had been signed in 2010.
Moscow also announced today that a Russian parliamentary commission 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 capability to create biological weapons components. And, if necessary, to produce and use them outside the national territory”, said the deputy speaker of the Russian parliament.
According to Irina Yarovaya, North American military laboratories have been used by NATO to circumvent the requirement of “serious and controlled reasons” that regulate the installation of military bases of the alliance in the sovereign territory of other countries.
“The facts and circumstances revealed indicate violations of the UN’s fundamental convention,” said Yarovaya, quoted by the Spanish agency Europa Press.
Under this policy, Washington can “approach Russia’s borders virtually unchecked,” she 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 serious risks of their use as biological weapons create real prerequisites to change the nature of future wars and bring them down to nuclear parity,” she added.
