Russia “isolated itself” and “missed an opportunity” by refusing to participate in the nuclear security summit in Washington, said Deputy adviser to the U.S. President for national security Ben Rhodes, Reuters reports.
“Russia’s decision not to participate [in the discussion] at a high level, in our view, is a missed opportunity for Russia,” said Rhodes in a conversation with journalists.
“Frankly, all they do is isolate themselves, not taking part [in cooperation in nuclear security], as they did before,” said the official.
The nuclear security summit under the leadership of USA will be held in Washington this week. On 1 and 2 April planned activities of the summit, the first of which is the lunch on behalf of President Barack Obama for heads of delegations arrived. Russia from participation in the summit refused.
Earlier, in February, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow excludes the possibility of continuing negotiations with Washington on reducing nuclear arsenals. According to the Deputy Minister, Moscow’s position regarding the prospects of continuing such negotiations “remains the same”. “We reached the line at which the bilateral U.S.-Russian negotiations in this area were not possible for several reasons,” — said Ryabkov. According to him, this is due to the development of missile defense, as well as the sanctions policy of the USA.
