MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Russia has taken into account the US statements about readiness to remove obstacles preventing Russian experts from inspecting the implementation of the New START Treaty, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Monday.

"The issue is not reduced to the problem of issuing visas or the non-acceptance by the American financial system of bank cards issued by Russian banks to pay for the expenses related to the stay of our inspectors on American territory," he said, "We have taken note of this and will see what might be behind it. This is irrelevant now because the question of resuming inspections is not considered in principle."

On February 1, Cara Abercrombie, deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for defense policy and arms control for the US National Security Council, said that the US administration had promised to take steps to remove what it saw as ‘potential’ obstacles to Russian inspections in the US under the New START Treaty.