РУССКИЙ
17:47 08.10.2025 •
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov.
Photo: ‘International Affairs’
Russia has not received any formal response from the US side to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative to extend compliance with the restrictions under the Treaty between Russia and the United States on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START Treaty), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told journalists.
"No, we have not received anything," he stated, replying to a question on the matter. "Naturally, we have taken note of the public remarks of the US president himself and of the White House press secretary on this issue made a few days earlier. Essentially, the Russian President has outlined all the priorities and positions not only in his address to the participants of the September 22 Security Council working meeting but also later, during his meeting with the representatives who attended the Valdai Forum in Sochi," the senior diplomat added.
"The thing is we put forward the proposal, and we extended our hand, but we can do without it (a response – TASS), if they are not interested," the senior Russian diplomat said.
"There is no discussion, and I emphasize this, about the proposal to renew the treaty. The idea is to maintain the key quantitative limits outlined in that agreement for a year after the treaty officially expires, that is, starting on February 6 of next year, strictly provided that the United States does not, for its part, take actions that may disrupt the existing parity and balance in strategic stability," he explained.
Ryabkov clarified that the United States must avoid destabilizing moves in the field of offensive strategic weapons and steps in the sphere of strategic air defense that, he added, Russia "could interpret as an attempt to weaken our nuclear deterrence capabilities."
The edifice of Russian-US relations is steadily crumbling, the cracks have already reached its foundation, and the Americans are to blame for this, Russian Sergey Ryabkov told the media.
He remarked that "there have been no 'factory settings' in Russian-American relations for a long time."
"We have a certain edifice of relations that is cracking and collapsing. The Americans are to blame for this. Now the cracks have reached the foundation," Ryabkov emphasized.
"I reckon it's easier to destroy than to build," he stated, adding that Russia is ready "to build, but there's no reciprocal response from the American side."
Moscow urged Washington to weigh carefully before transferring Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, Sergey Ryabkov told reporters.
"We call on the US to fully assess the consequences of such a step a thousand times. And we would like to stress that our enemies will not achieve their aims through pressure or intimidation. The objectives that our president and supreme commander-in-chief has set will be fulfilled in any case," the senior diplomat said, commenting on possible Tomahawk missile supplies to Kiev.
The powerful momentum from the Russia-US summit in Anchorage toward resolving the Ukraine crisis seems to have been spent already, Sergey Ryabkov, addressing the State Duma.
"Unfortunately, the powerful momentum from the Anchorage [summit] in favor of [peace] agreements has largely been undermined through efforts by opponents and efforts by supporters of 'war till the last Ukrainian', mostly among the Europeans," the senior Russian diplomat lamented.
Russia, under the current circumstances, considers it inappropriate to maintain its obligations under the plutonium management and disposition agreement with the US, Sergey Ryabkov told the State Duma.
"In this situation, the process of terminating cooperation with the Americans under the agreement, even from a formal standpoint, simply naturally offers itself. Maintaining any further obligations regarding plutonium, which is the subject of this agreement, is unacceptable and inadvisable from any point of view," he explained.
At Wednesday's plenary session the State Duma considered a bill "On the denunciation by the Russian Federation of the agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the United States on the disposal of plutonium, declared to be no longer necessary for defense purposes, its handling, and cooperation in this area, and the protocols to this agreement."
Ryabkov clarified that "the necessary conclusions and approvals have been received, and if the federal law is adopted, no additional federal budget expenditures will be required for its implementation."
He recalled that this agreement was suspended by a presidential decree on October 31, 2016, and a federal law on this matter was adopted at the same time.
"The reasons were: a fundamental change in circumstances, the imposition of sanctions against Russia by the United States, the adoption of a law on support for Ukraine that allows interference in our country's internal affairs, NATO's eastward expansion, and the buildup of the US military presence in East European countries," Ryabkov stated.
He emphasized the fact that there was also "an intention by the United States to change the plutonium disposal procedure, as outlined in the agreement itself, without obtaining consent from Russia."
"The agreement assumed that Russia would process excess plutonium into so-called mixed uranium-plutonium fuel, or MOX fuel, for nuclear power plants. The Americans intended to bury it, but the proposed disposal methodology raised questions about the possible recovery of this material after disposal," Ryabkov explained.
"Therefore, the situation required action on our part. Certain conditions for the agreement's resumption were formulated, which, of course, the Americans failed to fulfill," Ryabkov stated. "At present none of these conditions can be met, given that the situation has radically changed," leading to the termination of cooperation in this area. The agreement with the United States was reached in 2000 and ratified in 2011. It provided for the disposal by each side of 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium, declared redundant for military programs.
Moscow will mirror any move by the European Union (EU) to restrict Russian diplomats’ travel within the bloc, Sergey Ryabkov told reporters.
The senior diplomat stressed that those in the European Union discussing such restrictions are struggling to invent new measures. "Those who put forward and discuss these ideas actually don’t know what else to devise. We don’t care about their permissions and bans. In essence, this has nothing to do with real life," he told journalists, commenting on media reports that EU nations had approved limits on Russian diplomats’ movement within the union.
"They must realize that we will act reciprocally: if they impose restrictions on travel, we will introduce corresponding limits for representatives of unfriendly states who take part in this demarche, if it happens," the diplomat said. "I don’t understand why this is needed or who benefits from it," Ryabkov added. "This is merely another example of blind faith that we cannot manage without their goodwill, that we must ask for their favor. Given current events, we simply want to turn away and pay them less attention," the Russian deputy foreign minister stated.
About the START Treaty
The Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START Treaty) was signed in 2010 and entered into force on February 5, 2011., TASS remarks.
The document stipulates that seven years after its entry into effect, each side should have no more than 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and strategic bombers, as well as no more than 1,550 warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs and strategic bombers, and a total of 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers and strategic bombers. The Treaty was signed for a period of ten years, until February 5, 2021, with a possibility of a further extension upon the parties’ mutual agreement.
In February 2021, Moscow and Washington extended the treaty, described by the Russian authorities as the benchmark in the sphere of disarmament, for the maximum possible five years.However, Putin announced on February 21, 2023 that Russia was suspending its participation in New START but was not withdrawing from it. The Russian president emphasized that before returning to the discussion of the treaty’s extension, the Russian side wanted to understand how New START will take into account not only the United States’ arsenals but also the nuclear stockpiles of other NATO powers, namely the United Kingdom and France.
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