NEW YORK, November 2. /TASS/. Russia proceeds from the premise that the US won’t be able to establish such a missile defense system that would provide 100% of protection, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said during an online address to the Fort Ross Dialogue meeting on Tuesday.

"We operate under assumption […] that the Biden administration would be able in the time to come to meaningfully address concerns that we associate with this issue (missile defense - TASS)," the Russian senior diplomat said. "We think, it was a fundamentally wrong decision when under the [second] Clinton administration but much more so under George W. Bush’s administration the US decided to opt for a great deal of development of what now looks more and more like a global multilayered missile defense," he explained. "I don’t think the US would ever be able to establish through this very capital-intensive and very expensive in all other senses of the word [missile defense system] a waterproof, 100%-watertight shield over itself. I don’t think so. At best, the US would be able to protect itself from […] limited missile attacks from some very specific directions," he said.

According to the diplomat, as technologies evolve and new tools appear at the US’ disposal, Russia sees "more and more of risky situations when these capabilities may eventually begin to undermine if not to devaluate altogether the critical elements of the Russian strategic deterrence. We do not want this to happen. We consistently believe in an inseparable interlink between strategic offensive and strategic defensive capabilities of either side." "We say, let’s try to give answers to the so-called new security equation where this aspect would be also addressed one way or another," the Russian deputy foreign minister said.

"We should not lose any more time. And we should focus the work on a framework with a right scope and parameters where we ensure that the missile defense of the US serves the right purpose and doesn’t rock the fundaments of the strategic stability," the senior diplomat emphasized.