Russia ready to negotiate with US on nuclear disarmament

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov held a weekend press conference on January 24 to answer questions from the press about relations with the US and the Ukraine conflict.

Responding to a request for comment on US President Donald Trump's statement that Washington wants to discuss nuclear disarmament with Moscow, Peskov said Russia is ready to negotiate with the US on nuclear disarmament, but it is necessary to take into account the nuclear weapons potential of US allies Britain and France.

Mr. Peskov emphasized that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to negotiate with his US counterpart and the Kremlin is waiting for a signal from the White House.

Regarding Mr. Trump's statement that lowering Russian oil prices could help end the conflict in Ukraine, Mr. Peskov affirmed that the two things were not related.

On the same day, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko also gave an interview to Russia's TASS news agency about relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Ukraine issue.

On the issue of Ukraine, Mr. Grushko stressed that Russia will demand strong guarantees that it will not allow Ukraine to join NATO or establish a new, broader security mechanism.

The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister stressed that this is one of the key elements in any agreement on the Ukrainian conflict and is a factor linked to eliminating the root causes of the conflict.

Not only that, Russia also requested to make this a NATO policy, which has also been supported by a number of NATO member countries.

Regarding relations between Russia and NATO, Deputy Minister Grushko said that the military alliance's policy of expanding control will increase the risk of global military conflict.

He noted President Donald Trump's earlier statement that NATO countries should increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, because 2% is not enough, and that it seems that European NATO countries are ready to increase defense spending to 3% of GDP.

This, according to Mr. Grushko, does not reflect the real security situation but only leads to a race to produce weapons to achieve the military and geopolitical goals outlined by NATO in strategic documents to gain military superiority in all environments.

According to Mr. Grushko, if we only calculate the current defense spending level of 2% of GDP, NATO's total military spending has reached nearly 500 billion USD, accounting for more than half of the world's defense spending. Most of this money is used to buy American weapons, so the US will continue to promote this policy.

In that context, Mr. Grushko affirmed that Russia has enough technical and other means to ensure its own security in all situations.

Also in an interview with TASS on January 24, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergei Shoigu warned that geopolitical competition between world powers is becoming fierce, increasing the risk of armed conflict between nuclear powers.