No talks between the US and Russia on reducing nuclear potentials are in progress at the moment, the Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
He recalled President Vladimir Putin’s earlier statement that the lifting of sanctions was not an issue on Russia’s agenda.
"Russia was not the one who initiated those restrictions and Russia, as its president said, is not going to bring up the issue of sanctions in the course of foreign contacts," TASS cited Peskov as saying.
The Kremlin believes it will be appropriate to evaluate US President-elect Donald Trump’s statements about the future of anti-Russian sanctions only after he takes office.
"Let us be patient and wait till the moment Mr. Trump takes office. Then we will be able to pass judgements on his initiatives," Peskov told the media when asked about sanctions-related remarks by Trump from his recent interview.
Earlier, Trump said that he was for the conclusion of a nuclear deal with Russia, because he believed that nuclear weapons must be cut drastically.
"They have sanctions on Russia - let’s see if we can make some good deals with Russia,’’ Trump said, when asked if he was supportive of the restrictive measures introduced by the European countries. He declared that nuclear potential restrictions would be his priority in building relations with Moscow.
On January 13, President of the US Barack Obama extended earlier imposed sanctions against Russia over the ongoing developments in Ukraine for another year starting in March, according to Friday’s statement from the White House. "Therefore,… I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13660 (issued on March 16, 2014)," Obama said.
The editor-in-chief of 'Military-Industrial Courier' and the magazine 'Aerospace Defense', Mikhail Khodarenok, speaking with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, stressed that the reduction of the nuclear capabilities would be a loss for Russia. "No program to reduce weapons has brought any positive result either the Soviet Union or the Russian Federation. The US is primarily interested in pulling Russia's 'nuclear dagger' out," he said, adding that it is difficult to judge about Trump's intentions, because the US has not yet developed any specific programs.
And even if it happens, there is no single unit of nuclear weapons in Russia today, which would be appropriate to withdraw from service. "We have exceeded all the plans to reduce nuclear weapons under Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin," Mikhail Khodarenok is confident.
President of the National Strategy Institute, Mikhail Remizov, agreed with Khodarenok. "For Russia it is categorically disadvantageous even to discuss any scenario of nuclear disarmament. Reducing Russia's nuclear potential will allow the US to significantly reduce the cost their missile defense system," the expert drew attention.
Mikhail Remizov explained that Russian nuclear weapons allow it to compensate for the imbalance of the US and Russian military arsenals. "Today, nuclear weapons is a major factor balancing our chances. The United States for its part does not intend to abandon its strategic missile defense," he said.
"Now, any initiative of this kind should be discussed by all states of the nuclear club, not only Russia and the US. Today, nuclear weapons is not a threat to peace, but rather a deterrent, avoiding a major war," the President of the National Strategy Institute concluded.
