US-Russia relationship remains in unprecedented crisis

The relationships between Russia and USA are in a state of “unprecedented crisis” without any sign of improvement, a senior Russian diplomat acknowledged on Thursday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov argued that the White House’s emphasis on increasing arms supplies to Ukraine to ensure Russia’s defeat leaves no room for diplomacy.

“I see no prospect of a productive political and diplomatic process”Ryabkov said at a briefing. “We have a very deep and unprecedented crisis in relations between Russia and the United States. The Biden administration has brought them to a standstill.”.

Ryabkov warned that Washington and its allies must carefully assess the risks of supplying increasingly powerful Western weapons to kyiv.

“Americans must fully and deeply weigh the risks associated with their blatantly arrogant course”said.

Ryabkov noted that Moscow does not trust Western statements about self-imposed restrictions on a range of weapons supplied to Ukraine to prevent an escalation, adding that in the past such assurances served as a cover for a steady expansion of the range of weapons delivered. .

“We do not see any sign of reason in any of the capitals of the NATO and EU members”Ryabkov said. “What they are doing is not going to strengthen their security”.

The diplomat rejected the US argument that Russia’s refusal to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities to resume represents a violation of the New START treaty, the latest nuclear arms control pact between the two countries.

The New START treaty — signed in 2010 by then-Presidents Barack Obama and Russian Dmitry Medvedev — limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement provides for extensive on-site inspections to verify compliance.

Just days before the treaty was set to expire in February 2021, Russia and the United States agreed to extend it for another five years.

But the two countries have suspended mutual inspections since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Moscow last fall refused to allow them to resume, raising uncertainty about the future of the pact. Russia also indefinitely postponed a round of consultations planned under the treaty.

(With information from AP)