Global General

Russia accuses US in loose weapon control

Updated: 2010-08-07 18:16

MOSCOW: Russia accused the United States on Saturday of breaching its obligations over non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and other weapons treaties, a sign of straining relations between the two powers.

The charge came as an arms control treaty between the United States and Russia suffered a setback this week when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee delayed a ratification vote until mid-September.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on its web site the United States had been in breach of several arms-related treaties including the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) and a treaty on conventional weapons.

"During the START I period, the United States failed to resolve Russia's concerns over how this treaty was being fulfilled," the ministry said, citing a long list of what it called irregularities, including a U.S. failure to provide information on ballistic missiles trials.

Russia also accused the United States of preventing international supervision of its compliance with the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

The ministry also said secret information from the U.S. Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory ended up at the hands of a drug dealing gang in 2006.