Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday that Russia's "unconditional priority" is to prevent a nuclear conflict in light of the ongoing conflict with Ukraine and the "unpredictability" of international relations.
Ryabkov also insisted on the importance of "the work to ensure strategic stability, preserve the regimes for the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and improve the situation in the field of arms control." His comments follow Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev's comments that Moscow should not initiate negotiations on the extension of the New START deal that aims to contain the number of nuclear missile launchers in Russia and the United States.
