MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/. The United States is urging Russia to hold talks on strategic stability without preconditions in order to try to consolidate its unilateral military advantages, Moscow is categorically against it, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters.

"We categorically do not accept and completely reject the idea of negotiations with the United States on strategic stability, which, as Washington would like, would be conducted without preconditions," he said. "The main goal [of the US] is to try, under catchy slogans, to push us into allowing such negotiations, and within the framework of these negotiations to try to assert some unilateral advantages for themselves," the senior diplomat emphasized.

US dual goal

The Russian deputy foreign minister pointed to the fact that US calls for negotiations on strategic stability with the prospect of concluding a new treaty on strategic offensive arms reduction have a dual purpose. First of all, he said, "the Americans need restrictions on Russia’s nuclear arsenal while putting the nuclear weapons of its European allies out of the question, as well as, of course, the West's cumulative advantage in the field of non-nuclear capabilities."

"The second goal that the Americans, in our opinion, are pursuing by repeating such statements is an attempt to score political points in the international arena by making themselves look like a responsible nuclear power," Ryabkov pointed out. "But it is clear to anyone who follows the issue and approaches it without prejudice that the architecture of arms control agreements has been destroyed by Washington's destructive actions <...> as a result of the Americans creating a security situation in which further implementation of this treaty has become counterproductive for us, not to mention the direct violations of this agreement committed by the US side, which we have also spoken about many times," he concluded.