MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. Moscow believes that the nuclear arsenals of London and Paris are in fact under Washington's control, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Thursday.
"From our point of view, of course, the nuclear arsenals of both France and Britain are in fact under US control. Therefore, if we are to talk to America, then it will be absolutely senseless to talk without taking these two arsenals into account," the Kremlin spokesman pointed out.
Peskov explained that these countries "are in fact a single integrated system of NATO."
"And since the NATO bloc itself is governed by the United States - de facto - it is a single entity," he added. For more detailed explanations, Peskov suggested contacting the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The presidential spokesman voiced this opinion while commenting on a remark by French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anne-Claire Legendre. In an interview with the daily Kommersant she said that Paris could take part in strategic arms negotiations only if the gap between the capabilities of the two largest nuclear powers and France's arsenal was significantly narrowed.
On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was suspending its participation in the strategic arms reduction treaty (New START), but was not withdrawing from it altogether. He stressed that before going back to discussing the further operation of the treaty, the Russian side should have a clear understanding of how the arsenals of not only the United States, but also those of other NATO nuclear powers - Britain and France - would be taken into account. On March 1, Putin signed a law suspending Russia's participation in New START.