Relations between Russia and the United States are going through an “unprecedented crisis” and with no sign of progress, Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, said Thursday.
From the perspective of the senior diplomatic official, the White House’s emphasis on increasing arms supplies to Ukraine to ensure Russian defeat leaves no room for diplomacy.
“I see no prospects for a politically productive diplomatic process,” Ryabkov told several media outlets. “We are going through a very deep and unprecedented crisis in Russia-US relations. The Biden administration has driven them into an impasse.”he declared.
Ryabkov warned that the US and its allies should carefully assess the risks associated with sending and supplying increasingly powerful Western weapons to Ukraine.
“Americans must thoroughly assess the risks of their deceitful and arrogant course of action,” he said.
Ryabkov noted that Moscow does not trust Western statements about imposing restrictions on a range of weapons supplied to Ukraine to prevent an escalation.and added that such guarantees in the past only served to cover up an increase in the quantity and variety of weapons destined for Kiev.
“I do not see any sign of reasonableness in the capital of NATO and EU members,” he said. “What they do will not improve their safety.”
The senior Russian official rejected the United States’ argument that Russia’s refusal to resume inspections of its nuclear facilities contradicts the signed New START, the last nuclear arms control pact between the two countries still in force .
The New START treaty, signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to 1,550 nuclear warheads and 700 missiles and bombers. The agreement provides for inspections at certain locations to demonstrate compliance.
The United States and Russia decided to extend the treaty for another five years a few days before its expiry, scheduled for February 2021.
Russia and the US have suspended New START mutual inspections since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, but last fall Moscow refused to restart them, raising questions about the future of the agreement. Russia has also indefinitely postponed a round of consultations provided for in the agreements, the Associated Press (AP) news agency reports.
Last week, the US State Department said Russia’s refusal to allow the inspections “prevents the United States from performing important duties under the treaty and threatens the viability of nuclear arms control between the US and Russia.” . It was also stated that nothing prevents Russian inspectors from conducting inspections at US facilities.
Ryabkov on Thursday urged Russia to continue to abide by the treaty and continue to exchange information in accordance with the statute. “We abide by the treaty and abide by its provisions,” he said.
At the same time, he reaffirmed Moscow’s position that inspections cannot be resumed given the current state of relations.
Ryabkov’s remarks followed a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry referring to the impossibility of “establishing usual contacts [business as usual]with Washington and then “the U.S. effectively unleashed an all-out hybrid war against Russia, which could pose a real danger of a direct military confrontation between the two nuclear powers.”
The communiqué describes as “cynical” Washington’s requests to resume inspections of Russian nuclear facilities, following a recent series of attacks by Ukrainian drones on Russian air bases that have nuclear-capable strategic bombers, which were reportedly directed by the support from US secret services.
Ryabkov, who recently met with the new US Ambassador to Moscow, Lynne Tracy, he also referred that the Russian Foreign Ministry had lodged a formal complaint with the US embassy, as his continued use of social networks constitutes interference in Russian internal affairs..
Source: DN
