Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the U.S., in an Izvestia interview published this morning, that strategic security dialogue talks with the U.S., as much as Russia’s desires them, were suspended, though not terminated. “I think this is a right view—they have been put on a pause, they have not been terminated. We postponed the meeting of the bilateral consultative commission (BCC) on the New START treaty, we have not canceled it. I would refrain from making guesses when we are going to offer alternative dates,” he said, reported TASS. “It was a difficult decision, it was a political decision. It has been said more than once that the situation with the United States’ deeper and more dangerous involvement in the developments in and around Ukraine has directly influenced our decision in whether this meeting be organized right now. The conclusion was negative: that it is not a right time to meet in this format,” he remarked.
Ryabkov reported that, for the first time, there was no agreed-upon agenda for the BCC meeting. “Naturally, it was the last straw for the decision to postpone the meeting,” he said.
