Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Monday that Moscow was disappointed by Washington's reluctance to provide guarantees that its prospective missile defense shield would not be directed against Russian missiles.
Moscow reserves the right to pull out of the New START nuclear reduction treaty, Ryabkov told parliamentary hearings. "The New START treaty may become hostage to the U.S. approach," he said, RIA-Novosti reported.
The Kremlin's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told lawmakers that NATO had rejected Moscow's push for a missile shield that would be operated jointly.
"They told us that NATO doesn't outsource its security to nonmembers," Rogozin said. "But why then their system's range reaches all the way to the Urals? We haven't asked anyone to protect our territory."
(MT, AP)
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