Russia Thursday accused the U.S. of slowing down talks on a new nuclear weapons disarmament treaty, after officials admitted the two sides could no longer sign the accord this year.
Russia Thursday accused the U.S. of slowing down talks on a new nuclear weapons disarmament treaty, after officials admitted the two sides could no longer sign the accord this year.

U.S. and Russian officials have been holding intense talks in Geneva on replacing the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which led to deep cuts in their nuclear arsenals but expired Dec. 5 without a replacement.

"In the past couple of days we have noted a slowdown in the positions of the U.S. negotiators in Geneva ," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Lavrov dismissed reports suggesting a new treaty would be signed at the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen , which ends Friday and will be attended by U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

"It is highly unlikely to happen in Copenhagen ," Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow . "The work is continuing. A lot of key issues have already been agreed upon but some things remain to be solved."

"If the negotiators--both Russian and American--concentrate on fulfilling the instructions of the presidents, we will achieve an agreement fairly quickly," he added.

But replacing START appears to be turning into an embarrassment as Russia and the U.S. have broken a series of deadlines to agree the deal, some say.

"The new START treaty has not been signed on time," Newsweek's Russian edition said this week. "Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama will not manage to become friends."

Citing diplomatic sources, the magazine said the U.S. team had hinted it wanted to sign the agreement by the time Obama was to receive the Nobel Prize on Dec. 10 but Russia's powerful premier Vladimir Putin had convinced Medvedev "not to hurry."

Moscow has interpreted the U.S. request as an opportunity to arm twist Washington to win more concessions, a move that soured the talks, it said.

Lavrov indicated Thursday the talks might be losing the momentum. "They [the U.S. officials in Geneva] are referring to the necessity to receive additional instructions" from Washington, he said.

Medvedev and Obama had first pledged to sign the successor treaty by the time the original agreement expired on Dec. 5.

Then the officials on both sides said the deal would be signed by end of the year.

An informed source in Moscow told the Interfax news agency Thursday that "the number of details that need to be agreed is such that it's physically impossible to do it all in the time left until the end of the year."

Some observers have speculated Russia is deliberately throwing the wrench in the works to prolong the talks.

"If there were political will, the agreement could be signed at any moment," Alexander Golts, an independent defense analyst, told AFP.

"But it's important for Russia that these talks last forever," he said, noting the Kremlin had been enjoying the limelight as the world's most powerful nation took the time to agree the key deal with Moscow.

But others like Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the Russia in Global Affairs magazine say the two sides have to make sure no one can "pick holes" in the new document so that it can be ratified both in Moscow and Washington.

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