Russia remains committed to START, deputy FM says
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov remarked on Monday that his country remains committed to the New START agreement on the reduction of strategic offensive arms despite the "dead-end" relations it currently has with the other signee, the United States.
"The entire security situation, including arms control, has been held hostage by the US line of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia," he told RIA Novosti, referring to Washington's recent decision to send Abrams tanks to Ukraine. He went on to accuse the US of violating the agreement by promising such a delivery.
Ryabkov stressed that, despite that, Russia still seeks to have another round of talks with the US on their bilateral relations. "There is no other way to find common ground in order to somehow move the accumulated pile of problems off the ground," he said, adding that no date for the talks has been set yet.