Medvedev says Russia-US relationship currently null, should not resume
Dmitry Medvedev reveals in an interview that relations between the US and Russia are at their lowest.
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Medvedev says the Russia-US relationship is currently null and should not resume.
The current situation of ties between Russia and the United States corresponds to the lowest limit of the thermodynamic temperature scale, which is absolute zero, according to Dmitry Medvedev in an interview with Sputnik on Monday.
"We do not have any relations with the US now. They are at zero kelvin, and there is no need to unfreeze them today. And there is no need to negotiate with [the US] yet. It is harmful for Russia," Medvedev said.
It is also premature to envisage new negotiations with the United States to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).
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"It will depend on the decision of President [Vladimir Putin]. I, for my part as a person who was directly related to the New START and signed it in 2010, consider the timing for new negotiations the worst possible now," Medvedev added.
New START, or the Russia-US Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, is the world's sole remaining arms control treaty, slated to expire in 2026. Moscow and Washington started negotiating a future pact, but talks were put on hold this year at the US initiative after Russia started the military operation in Ukraine in February.
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