MOSCOW. Feb 6 (Interfax) - The time of the next session of the Bilateral Consultative Commission on the New START treaty has yet to be set, as it cannot be viewed out of context of the Ukraine situation, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday.
"Speaking of the time, we have not made a decision on this issue. We cannot view the situation around the Bilateral Consultative Commission's meeting out of context of the increasingly hostile U.S. course in regard to Russia, which manifests itself with the never-ending deliveries of increasingly dangerous weapon systems to Ukraine, the broadening range of these weapons and, in general, the deepening U.S. involvement as a party to the conflict," Ryabkov told reporters in Moscow in response to a related question.
"We view the situation with inspections in the same context as a session of the Bilateral Consultative Commission," Ryabkov said, responding to an Interfax question on whether Russia is ready to resume inspections under the New START treaty.
"It is hard to imagine U.S. Armed Forces officers inspecting military sites in Russia and, being representatives of a party to the conflict, traveling deep into our territory despite their stated goals being the need to verify compliance with the New START treaty," Ryabkov said.
Russia has taken into account Washington's statements that the U.S. is working to lift the barriers for Russian inspectors to visit the relevant sites, he said.
"I should say, however, that the matter is not limited to the issuance of visas, or the fact that the U.S. financial system declines cards issued by Russian banks for our inspectors to pay for services and expenses in the U.S. We have noted this. We will wait and see what this could mean. For now, this is simply irrelevant because of what I said earlier - the resumption of inspections is not being considered in principle," Ryabkov said.