MINSK, October 26. /TASS/. Russia has stopped inspections under the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty because there is no trust left between Moscow and Washington, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
"Strategic stability stipulates the existence of conditions for reaching some kind of agreements that will equally reflect the interest and respond to the concerns of the participants in such negotiating work," he said, when asked by a reporter whether it is possible for Russia to resume the dialogue on strategic stability with the US under the current conditions.
Lavrov said Moscow had suspended the inspections while remaining committed to all the obligations of the treaty.
"We stopped inspections because inspections are a measure of mutual trust. There is no trust left between us and the US. It has destroyed it by undermining all those principles that are set out in the preamble of this treaty," the minister said.
He said that "the treaty is in force, we are committed to the parameters that are in place."
"Apart from that, there are also practical considerations: They keep asking for these inspections to be resumed, but the inspections are carried out at nuclear facilities, facilities related to the storage of nuclear weapons. And when the Kiev regime uses Western weapons to attack, as it was not so long ago, the bases of our strategic bombers on Russian territory, that probably raises the question why rush and inspect our facilities right now?" the minister said.