MOSCOW, July 8 Launch of even a “sighting dialogue» between Moscow and Washington in the field of arms control is now excluded due to the destructive course of the United States, said Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryabkov.
“We don’t have a base now and we won’t be able to form one in order to launch not even negotiations, but just a preliminary dialogue in this area. The reason is Washington’s destructive course,” the diplomat said in an interview with International Affairs magazine.
“We cannot conduct a dialogue on arms control with a country that has officially declared its intention to inflict a strategic defeat on us and every day is looking for ways to damage us, how to make it more painful, more difficult, more difficult to cope with the tasks facing our country. This is just an oxymoron. We cannot close our eyes to one thing and at the same time, as if nothing had happened, discuss the topic of limiting the key link in ensuring our security and allowing our opponents into this area,” Ryabkov said.
As the diplomat noted, in this case “one thing does not fit with the other,” and Moscow quite directly and openly informed the Americans about this.
«I hope they caught this as our signal,» he added.
The expiration of the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START) is approaching, the diplomat noted.
“We have suspended the treaty, but we are complying with its central quantitative restrictions on warheads and delivery vehicles. The Americans would probably like to see negotiations begin on what’s next, but until they demonstrate a clear and indisputable change for the better in their policy, according to at least they won’t show that this reckless, unbridled Russophobia is being put aside and is being replaced by a somewhat more sensible approach and something more useful is starting to happen in the area of our relations, until this happens, there is simply no dialogue on strategic stability maybe,” Ryabkov emphasized.
On February 21, 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a message to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, stated that Russia was suspending participation in the Russian-American START Treaty, emphasizing that the country was not withdrawing from the treaty. He noted that before returning to the discussion, it is necessary to understand what countries such as France and Great Britain are claiming, and how to take into account their strategic arsenals, that is, the total strike potential of NATO. An official note on the suspension of Russia’s participation in the Treaty was transmitted to the American side on February 28.
In early June 2023, as a countermeasure within the framework of the New START Treaty, Washington announced the cessation of the transfer to the Russian Federation of information on the status and location of its strategic weapons covered by the treaty, revoked the visas issued to Russian specialists for conducting inspections within the framework of the New START Treaty and announced refusal to issue new ones. In addition, the United States announced the cessation of providing the Russian Federation with telemetric information affecting the launches of American ICBMs and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryabkov stated that the Russian Federation’s return to the implementation of the New START Treaty is possible only if the United States abandons its hostile course towards Moscow — “it is clear that this is still a long way off.” Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov noted that dialogue on strategic arms control with the United States is impossible until the Americans change their anti-Russian policy.