MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. Moscow and Washington are in the process of active contacts regarding the extension of the Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START), Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Tuesday. He remarked he had no idea whether the situation involving blogger Alexey Navalny was touched upon at Russian-US negotiations.
“The topic of extending New START is the main issue on the agenda of bilateral relations. It was certainly discussed,” Peskov specified about Monday’s telephone conversation between Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
“Regrettably, I have no information about other details of the conversation between Patrushev and his US counterpart. For this reason, I am unable to confirm if the question of the detention center resident was brought up,” Peskov said.
He stressed that “it is true that active contacts [between Moscow and Washington] are underway, because the time left before the expiration of the treaty is running out fast.”
“It takes truly vigorous contacts and efforts to finalize the issue of the treaty’s extension,” Peskov said. He added that the treaty’s prolongation “would meet the interests of both countries and the whole world.”