“Billingsley's attempts to put pressure on, pointing out that the price of the START extension for Russia will increase, as he formulated it: after the expiration of the current period, the treaty will not be extended, and so on - these are all ultimatums that only reduce the chances of any agreement.
We cannot talk in such a genre, "RIA Novosti Ryabkov quotes.
Earlier Billingsley said that Russia was asked to prepare a memorandum on armaments, which does not require ratification, and in the future will lead to a framework concept and a full-fledged multilateral treaty.
Billingsley said the future treaty should be multilateral and involve China.
He also noted that if such an agreement at the presidential level is reached, the treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive arms will be extended for a period of less than five years.