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Russia’s readiness to keep caps on strategic arms is goodwill gesture — Lavrov

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier in his message to the Federal Assembly said that Russia was suspending participation in New START, but not withdrawing from the treaty altogether

MOSCOW, March 28. /TASS/. Russia's readiness to maintain the caps set under the strategic arms reduction treaty (New START) is nothing but a goodwill gesture, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told TASS in an interview on Tuesday.

"Do you know what is one of the charges against us? They argue that when we announced that, despite the suspension of our participation in the treaty, we will comply with the quantitative parameters recorded in it for the period of its validity until 2026, Russia in fact tried to selectively fulfill its obligations under the treaty. This is not so," Lavrov said.

"We suspended our participation in that treaty completely. Our readiness to preserve the caps on strategic offensive arms set in the treaty is nothing but a gesture of goodwill," Lavrov said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier in his message to the Federal Assembly said that Russia was suspending participation in New START, but not withdrawing from the treaty altogether. Before resuming the discussion on further work under the New START treaty, Moscow must have a clear understanding how this document will take into account the arsenals of not only the United States, but also of other NATO nuclear powers - Britain and France.

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