Russian diplomat says it’s impossible to work out document replacing New START now

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. It is not currently feasible to draft a document that could replace New START given the general geopolitical situation, a senior Russian foreign ministry official, Vladimir Yermakov, told TASS in an interview.
“There are no such prospects in the current situation. Arms control is indivisible from the general geopolitical and military-strategic situation. Any serious steps in this sphere always correlate with constructive political processes in the relations of the contacting parties. At least, there should be a mutual understanding of the need for dialogue, as well as the political will to stimulate substantive talks based on compromises,” said Yermakov, who heads the Foreign Ministry’s Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department. He answered a question about the possibility of working out a document that could replace New START and would take into account the nuclear arsenals of France and the United Kingdom.
According to Yermakov, “nothing of the kind” is observed from the side of the West. “So far, everything is just the opposite: the US and its allies are waging a total hybrid war against Russia in an attempt to inflict a ‘strategic damage’ on our country in the military sphere, as well as to succeed in pressuring the country with sanctions. The expectation is that a weakened Russia will submit to the dictates of the West from a position of power. However, as the history has repeatedly shown, this is an absolutely futile approach as far as our state is concerned,” the diplomat added.
On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was suspending its participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) but is not withdrawing from it. The president stressed that before returning to the discussion of the extension of the New START treaty, the Russian side wants to understand how the treaty will take into account not only the United States’ arsenals but also stockpiles of other NATO nuclear powers, namely the United Kingdom and France. On March 1, the president signed a law on the suspension of Russia’s participation in the New START.