Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has acknowledged that the decision to leave the nuclear weapons negotiating table with the United States is based on the current poor relations between Moscow and Washington.
The U.S. State Department denounced on Monday that Russia had unilaterally withdrawn from talks to reformulate the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which were due to begin this week in Cairo, Egypt.
Now, Zakharova has insisted at a press conference that she expects the U.S. side to make «conscientious efforts» to ensure conditions that would facilitate a rapprochement between the two countries, culminating in a new round of talks on the issue.
Finally, the Russian diplomatic representative insisted that for Moscow this issue is important and considers it necessary to prevent an arms race, according to the TASS agency.