MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. US statements about their willingness to resume talks with Russia on an agreement to replace the New START were not backed up by any communication between the two sides and are intended to stir up propaganda, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing Thursday.
"The Americans do not back up this kind of goading with any substantive, businesslike appeals through working channels. It all remains only in the media, it is done exclusively in the form of megaphone diplomacy. We understand that all this aims at some kind of propaganda," the diplomat said commenting on the words of Mallory Stewart, the Assistant Secretary for the American Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance (AVC), who announced the US’s willingness to resume talks with Russia on the News START replacement agreement.
Zakharova stressed that Moscow remained open, in principle, to a dialogue with Washington on de-escalation, maintenance of strategic stability, and risk reduction measures, including the use of arms control approaches. According to her, this dialogue was possible only on the basis of equal rights and respect for Russia's interests.
The Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the New START Treaty) was signed in 2010 and went into effect on February 5, 2011. The document stipulates that seven years after its adoption each party should have no more than a total of 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and strategic bombers, as well as no more than 1,550 warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs and strategic bombers, and a total of 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers and strategic bombers. The New START Treaty will remain in effect for 10 years, until 2021, unless it is replaced before that date by a subsequent agreement on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms. It can also be extended for no longer than 5 years (that is, until 2026) upon the parties’ mutual consent.
In February 2021, Moscow and Washington extended the treaty, described by the Russian authorities as the gold standard in the sphere of disarmament, for the maximum possible five years. The current US administration has repeatedly indicated that it considers the New START a very important document and wants to keep it in place.