MOSCOW, Apr 20 French nuclear arsenals and Great Britain is de facto under the control of the United States, in this regard, it is necessary to discuss the reduction taking this into account, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, told reporters.
Earlier, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Clair Legendre said that France's condition for joining possible future negotiations on strategic arms control is a significant reduction in the nuclear arsenals of the Russian Federation and the United States to the level of France itself.
«From our point of view, of course, the nuclear arsenals of both France and Great Britain can be said to be de facto under the control of the United States of America, therefore, if we talk with America, then we should talk without taking into account these two arsenals absolutely meaningless. This is a conceptual approach to what is happening,» Peskov said, commenting on Legendre's statement.
Peskov clarified that France and Great Britain are in fact «a single integral system of NATO», which «is under the control of the United States de facto.»
Peskov also said that it would be better for the Russian Foreign Ministry to comment on the statement «according to the nuances».
«But our conceptual approach is exactly as I said,» Peskov added.