MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) - The United States remains unresponsive to Russia's desire to extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"There is also the threat that the New START treaty may now be terminated. Then there'll be no restrictions whatsoever regarding weapons systems. And we have been calling and are calling on our partners to extend this treaty for at least a year and hold substantive negotiations within that year," Putin said at his annual press conference on Thursday.
"We understand that Russia currently possesses modern hypersonic systems that nobody else in the world does. We understand that. After all, we aren't opposed to taking this circumstance into account. But nobody has talked about this with us so far," he said.
Washington earlier quit a number of international treaties, including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Treaty on Open Skies, Putin said.
Russia is pursuing a far less aggressive policy compared to the U.S., he said.
"We have two or three [military] bases [abroad], and these are located in areas that are dangerous in terms of terrorism, such as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Syria. And the other country, I mean the U.S., has a huge network around the world. Do you know our military budget? Forty-six billion. The United Kingdom has a much larger one, and that of the U.S. is $770 billion. Russia ranks roughly sixth in terms of military expenditures," Putin said.