Foreign Ministry: Russia has adopted statements about US readiness not to interfere with inspections

Moscow has taken note of Washington’s statements about its readiness to remove obstacles for Russian specialists to carry out facilities on US soil under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

“We have taken note of this. Let’s see what we can stand behind it, – leads his words to RIA Novosti.

Earlier, Kara Abercrombie, coordinator for defense policy and arms control of the White House National Security Council, made such a statement, the agency notes.

Ryabkov stressed that the United States is trying to present the situation with START in the public field as not related to the Ukrainian crisis and is “quite free” with its obligations under the treaty, transmits TASS.

Against this background, the issue of resuming inspections “in principle does not look,” the diplomat stressed.

Earlier, on February 1, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Russia thinks important extension of START. “He is actually the only one that remains not only viable, but, at least hypothetically speaking, viable,” he said. Prior to that, January 31, the US Department of State notified the country’s congress about what it considers as a violation of the START-3 treaty “blocking” by Russia of American inspections.

START-3 was concluded in 2010 for 10 years, it was extended for another five years in 2021 with the coming to power of the administration of US President Joe Biden. It is now the last arms control treaty between Russia and the United States in force. It provided for the reduction of strategic weapons to 700 deployed (and 800 in total) carriers (submarines, intercontinental missiles and heavy bombers) and 1,550 deployed warheads.