Russia drew attention to the US plans to increase its nuclear arsenal above the START Treaty limits

Russia drew attention to the statements by the United States about its readiness to immediately begin expanding its nuclear arsenal beyond the limits of the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START-3). This was stated by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov at a session of the international Trialog club.

"We have carefully recorded Washington's declared readiness to immediately begin expanding its nuclear arsenal beyond the limits of START 3 and to conduct nuclear tests contrary to the provisions of the CTBT (Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. — Ed.) "on the first order" of the President of the United States [Donald Trump]," he said, the text of the speech was published on the website of the PEER Center.

According to Ryabkov, the United States is trying to circumvent an issue that is mandatory for Russia — the participation of Britain and France in any possible multilateral negotiations. In addition, Washington does not demonstrate its readiness to comprehensively reduce the conflict potential, taking into account all factors of strategic stability, the diplomat said.

The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister also stressed that the US proposals are mostly declarative in nature. In his opinion, they serve as an excuse to achieve the decisive superiority of the United States and its allies "over any opponent."

"Even if we consider only the NATO member states, the Western camp is still undoubtedly and by a wide margin superior to any other state or group of states in terms of total military budgets, the number of its armed forces and their deployment capabilities," Ryabkov concluded.

Nuclear detente: Russia is ready for dialogue with the Americans on a new START treaty

A conversation involving the five owners of the largest arsenals of such weapons is still unlikely.

On the same day, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko noted that against the background of France's intentions to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of non-nuclear European countries, Russian military personnel would have to take this into account when compiling lists of targets in case of a possible conflict.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on April 8 that Russia was noting an explosive surge in interest from European countries in the topic of nuclear weapons, and the dynamics of recent months were depressing. She also stated that the "pro-nuclear" movement of European countries leads to the erosion and weakening of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.

On March 12, Zakharova expressed the opinion that the desire of European countries to transfer nuclear weapons to Ukraine is a combination of aggression and stupidity. She noted that previous generations of Europeans had a reasonable fear of everything related to nuclear weapons, but now this factor has disappeared.