MOSCOW. Oct 3 (Interfax) - Russia categorically rejects the idea of strategic stability talks with the United States without preconditions, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday.
"We categorically decline and fully reject the idea of strategic stability talks with the United States conducted without preconditions, as Washington would like to," Ryabkov said at a press conference in Moscow.
"This is a cunning formula disguising an aspiration to take what's convenient for the U.S. side out of the general international context and leave out everything else," he said.
"There are several reasons" for the U.S. declarations of readiness for talks, he said.
"The main goal is to try to push us using catchy slogans into allowing such negotiations, within the framework of which they will seek to secure certain unilateral military advantages for themselves," Ryabkov said.
"The Americans need to limit our nuclear arsenal while taking the nuclear weapons of their European allies and the West's combined superiority in non-nuclear potential out of the equation," he said.
The United States seeks "to score political points" on the world stage by making such statements, Ryabkov said.