MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/. Moscow occasionally exchanges assessments with Washington on the issue of arms control, but there is nothing new on that track, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS.

"We exchange assessments with them from time to time. But there are no elements of novelty. It is the US that interrupted a steady, systematic dialogue on strategic stability, switching to empty and completely detached from reality calls to us in terms of return to the New START Treaty, and on other subjects," the senior diplomat said.

According to the diplomat, this Washington’s policy in the sphere of arms control reflects the United States’ "focus on its own vision of what is right." "Here, there is simply nothing to discuss but we are ready to patiently convey our approaches and explain why the US policy is destructive," he said.

Ryabkov stressed that the United States needs to change its foreign policy approach to work on arms control with Russia. "Everything depends on Washington. If they want any real work in this sphere, they need to revise their approaches. This is obvious," he said, adding that Moscow took note of the recent public statements by US officials on this topic.

"We hope that these officials, and the US administration in general, at least will take our arguments and the logic of our position seriously," he noted.

On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was suspending its participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) but is not withdrawing from it. The president stressed that before returning to the discussion of the extension of the New START treaty, the Russian side wants to understand how the treaty will take into account not only the United States’ arsenals but also stockpiles of other NATO nuclear powers, namely the United Kingdom and France. On February 28, he signed a law on the suspension of Russia’s participation in the treaty.