Americans should “somehow come to their senses” and “accept the truth as it is,” believes the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The condition for Russia’s return to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) discussion is a change in the “hostile course” of the United States. This statement was made by the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Sergei Ryabkov, TASS reports on Wednesday, March 22.
“The condition for returning to the discussion of part of the content of the agreement is a change in the hostile course of the US towards Russia,” he said.
Ryabkov called the war in Ukraine “the most terrible manifestation of the worsening course of Washington, against Russia today.” But, according to him, the United States is taking “hostile actions” in almost all areas.
“Beginning with price ceilings and other measures to destroy the system of global economic relations in the interests of ensuring our own dominance in everything, and ending with state-sponsored evil events in the ICT environment , state structures, attacks on our relevant resources continue. – these are just examples,” listed the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation.
Sergei Ryabkov believes that Americans “must somehow wake up and shake things up, throw off their blinders and accept reality as it is.”
“They continue to play with fire in the true sense of the word. In this situation, there can be no question of any secret, open, direct, closed, any agreements about the” restoration” in quotes of something related to START,” added the Russian diplomat.
At the same time, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation believes that possible compromise solutions within the START framework, which Washington can offer, are currently “absolutely meaningless politically.”
Ryabkov also assessed the possibility of a nuclear conflict: “I don’t want to get into a discussion about whether the probability of a nuclear conflict is high today, but in any case it is higher than anything we have had in the past decades, let’s say.”
As you know, on February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the suspension of Russia’s participation in the New START Treaty in a message to the Federal Assembly. On February 22, the law was adopted by the State Duma of the Russian Federation and the Federation Council.
In this regard, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that such a decision by Russia would destroy the entire architecture of arms control.
And the head of the US State Department, Anthony Blinken, called Putin’s decision on START irresponsible.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) is the only remaining element of the former comprehensive system of arms control treaties between the United States and Russia. This agreement also limits the number of strategic nuclear weapons, such as long-range missiles.
Under START, each country can have no more than 800 nuclear weapons carriers and no more than 1,550 warheads. In February 2021, US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin extended the agreement until 2026.
New START provides for regular mutual inspections of ICBM bases, strategic submarine bases and strategic aviation air bases, as well as loading, storage, repair and testing areas. From 2011 to 2020, the parties conducted 328 such reviews. From 2020, they – by mutual agreement – will not be held due to the pandemic.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.