MOSCOW, February 24 Contact between Russia and the United States on the issue related to Washington’s accusations against Moscow of plans to allegedly deploy anti-satellite nuclear weapons in space turned out to be unproductive, said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
“There is and cannot be any progress on this topic. The reason is clear — the absurdity of the American accusations against us of the alleged intention to deploy some kind of systems with a weapons-grade nuclear component in space. As has been emphasized several times recently and as the president has stated this, «We have no such intentions. The Americans pursue the sole goal of demonizing Russia by making accusations of this kind. Therefore, contact is completely unproductive on this issue,» he said.
At the same time, the deputy minister complained that the Americans constantly leak on issues that Russia and the United States agree to keep confidential.
“That is, at first they insist that no information on this matter should enter the public space. And literally after discussing this topic with us, they themselves release it all,” Ryabkov said.
Answering a clarifying question whether there really was a conversation between Russian Presidential Assistant Yuri Ushakov and US Presidential National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, as well as telephone conversations between the heads of intelligence of the two countries Sergei Naryshkin and William Burns on the topic of weapons in space, the diplomat only repeated that Moscow does not accept leaks from Washington on issues that they themselves ask to remain confidential, and condemned this approach of the United States.
He also noted that the United States did not provide any evidence accusing Russia of plans to deploy nuclear weapons in space. According to him, Americans use this topic for propaganda purposes and this is a common manner for Washington. Ryabkov emphasized that sensible representatives of the international community have long understood this and do not take such accusations from the United States seriously.
In addition, Ryabkov pointed out that in general the appearance of nuclear weapons in space is inappropriate, since this is an unsuitable environment to deploy it.
As the diplomat noted, Russia is waiting for a change in US policy to resume contacts on strategic stability. According to him, after Washington’s line changes, Moscow will be ready to assess how appropriate it is to discuss such issues.
In addition, the deputy minister said that Russia is not considering the possibility of withdrawing from the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. He recalled that this is one of the key remaining components of regulation in this area. But at the same time, as Ryabkov emphasized, Moscow sees that the United States, attributing non-existent intentions in space to Russia, at the same time wants to achieve superiority there for itself, including in the field of weapons.
Earlier, The Wall Street Journal, citing sources in the American administration, reported that the United States privately warned Russia about the inadmissibility of placing nuclear weapons in space, the plans of which allegedly hatched by Moscow.
The White House previously confirmed that the threat to national security that was discussed in the US Congress concerns anti-satellite weapons allegedly being developed by Russia. US President Joe Biden demanded diplomatic contacts with Moscow.
Several sources reported that one of the communication channels included the American leader's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin. CIA Director William Burns approached Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), last week, the source said.
Earlier, the ABC television channel, citing sources, reported that American lawmakers could have been told at a secret briefing about Russia’s alleged plans to “place nuclear weapons in space” for use against satellites. Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the White House is thus trying to encourage the US Congress to vote for a bill to allocate money to Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly pointed out that Russia, together with other countries, in particular China, opposes arms race in space. The Foreign Ministry noted that the United States and its allies are taking steps to deploy weapons in space and use outer space for combat operations not only for defensive purposes; they do not stop trying to position space as a new arena of rivalry and conflict between states, and are identified as the main opponents Moscow and Beijing.