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Russia hoping US will abandon unacceptable conditions to extend New START - speaker

Speaker of the Russian Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko is certain that ideas and intentions to involve other nuclear states in this process can be discussed without destroying the foundation

MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. Moscow is hoping that Washington will realize the importance and necessity of extending the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START) as it expires in the beginning of 2021, Speaker of the Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Valentina Matviyenko said in an interview with TASS.

"We are hoping that New START will be extended. This is a vital strategic document. We want the US to not put forward unacceptable conditions to Russia and to understand the importance and necessity of extending it," she said.

The speaker is certain that ideas and intentions to involve other nuclear states in this process can be discussed without destroying the foundation. "We can have this dialogue on this foundation. To discuss the updated strategic agreement. However, New START needs to be in force until there is a more effective and, possibly, more correct agreement that stands up to new challenges," the senator underlined.

Matviyenko pointed out that Russia is persistently working and "confirms its readiness to extend New START without any preconditions."

Earlier, US Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea said that the US is willing to extend New START with Russia under the condition that both countries temporarily freeze their nuclear arsenals. According to him, Washington "could strike it tomorrow, in fact, but Moscow’s going to have to show the political will to do so as well." In turn, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov blasted the proposal as unacceptable.

New START

Moscow and Washington signed the Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms in 2010. Under its terms, either country must reduce its strategic offensive arms in such a way that at the end of the seventh year following its entry into force and later on their overall amounts should not exceed 700 units of deployed inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and heavy bombers, 1,550 warheads and 800 operational and non-operational missile launchers and strategic bombers.

The treaty was concluded for a period of ten years (until February 5, 2021). It can be replaced by a follow-up agreement before the deadline expires, or prolonged for no more than five years (until 2026) by mutual consent.

Moscow urges Washington to refrain from procrastinating on the treaty’s extension, because in its opinion it is the "gold standard" in the field of disarmament.

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