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Strategic dialogue necessary, but essential preconditions for it lacking today — Kremlin

Dmitry Peskov emphasized that such a dialogue "cannot be carried out through the practice of one nation delivering [moralistic] homilies to another nation"

MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. Russia is ready to conduct a dialogue with the West on issues of strategic stability, but the essential preconditions for such a process are currently lacking, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"None of the prerequisites exist at the moment, although such a dialogue is definitely needed," Peskov told journalists.

The presidential spokesman emphasized that such a dialogue "cannot be carried out through the practice of one nation delivering [moralistic] homilies to another nation."

"We are against such practices, but we believe that this dialogue is crucial. We are certainly ready to start one," he continued.

Asked by journalists whether Russia’s pullout from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) would have an impact on global strategic stability, Peskov replied that, "the situation will de facto remain unchanged."

The CFE Treaty was signed in 1990 and was later updated in 1997. However, NATO countries never ratified the modified version of the treaty, continuing to adhere to the 1990 provisions, which contain outdated conventional arms norms based on the balance between NATO and the now-defunct Warsaw Pact.

As a result, Russia was forced to declare a moratorium on the implementation of the agreement in 2007. On March 11, 2015, Russia suspended its participation in meetings of the Joint Consultative Group on the CFE Treaty, thus completing the process of suspending its membership in the treaty, but it continued to be a formal party to the treaty from a legal standpoint.

Since then, Russia's interests within the Joint Consultative Group have been represented by Belarus.

On May 29, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on the denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), which took effect on June 9.