MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. The lack of progress in nuclear disarmament is a result of Washington’s destructive and even openly hostile policies towards Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

"Russia’s fundamental stance is well-known to the US partners, who, incidentally are very selective in their approach to arms control issues," she said. "For instance, they block the conclusion of an international treaty that would prevent weapons from being put in space. They have not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Tests Ban Treaty to this day and in violation of the Nuclear Arms Non-Proliferation Treaty they have been carrying out joint nuclear missions with some non-nuclear countries of NATO."

Zakharova said that Russia has never shirked a dialogue on strategic stability and arms control. Back in 2013, when Obama was planning a visit to Moscow, a joint document was being drafted on the aspects of further cooperation in that field. Washington eventually canceled the visit. Then the United States used the events in Ukraine and Crimea as a pretext to freeze all working channels of cooperation with Russia. It curtailed the activities of the joint presidential commission and terminated bilateral military contacts."

"Relations between our countries suffered a sharp worsening due to deliberate destructive actions by the United States, taken on the excuse of a Russian aggression," Zakharova said. "All this is accompanied by growing anti-Russian rhetoric."

"We remain prepared for conducting a specific discussion with the United States on strategic affairs, although the climate for such a dialogue is not the most favorable of all through its fault," Zakharova said. "A full-fledged discussion will be possible only if Washington is guided by the fundamental principles of equality, mutual respect for interests, and the awareness it is essential to avoid causing harm to the security of other states. We have not seen that for the time being."