Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday the risk of a nuclear conflict in the world was the highest in several decades, alluding to tensions with the West over Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
Despite the statement, Ryabkov assured Russia continued to assert that “the world must be free and safe from the nuclear threat.”
The Russian diplomat acknowledged that Moscow is now “actually in open conflict with the United States,” which he accused of being “virtually” part of the Ukraine conflict.
Because of this, Russia cannot conduct “business as usual”, and the direct consequence is the suspension of the last nuclear arms deal between Russia and the US, Novo Start.
In addition, Ryabkov said there was a lack of “political sense” in the possibility of Moscow returning to compliance with the treaty, the application of which was suspended by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month.
“It was necessary to reach an agreement before, now it is impossible. From a legal point of view, the contract has been completely suspended from our side,” he stressed, adding that when assessing the future of Novo Start, which expires in 2026, Moscow will take into account the “common arsenal” of the US, UK and France.
Ryabkov stressed that there is currently “no agreement” between the two parties and that the only condition on the table is that Washington reverse the “hostile course” it has been pursuing towards Russia since 2010.
In his opinion, the “absolutely unprecedented” hostility of the US, the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine and the allout hybrid war against the country “profoundly changed the security situation” for Russia.
The diplomat also recalled that the day before, in a joint statement, Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping said that “there can be no winners in a nuclear war”, therefore “it should never be unleashed”.
In the document, adopted as part of Xi’s state visit to Moscow, leaders call on the five signatories to the Joint Declaration on Preventing Nuclear War and the Arms Race (US, Russia, China, France and the UK) to: to follow fundamental principles.
This includes “effectively reducing the risk of nuclear war and any armed conflict between states possessing nuclear weapons”.
In November 2022, the two countries were due to resume strategic dialogue in Cairo, but Russia decided at the last minute to postpone it indefinitely because Washington was “unwilling” to take Russian priorities into account.
The US had previously suspended the arms control dialogue following Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.
Moscow, for its part, informed Washington in August of the decision to ban US inspections of nuclear arsenals, citing difficulties in doing so in the US due to Western sanctions related to overflight permits and visa issuance to Russian officials.
In February 2021, Putin and Joe Biden extended the last nuclear disarmament treaty in force between the two powers in 2010 by five years.
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