The Kremlin said on Monday it was too early to comment on a proposal by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to do a deal with Moscow on nuclear arms cuts in exchange for Washington lifting sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.
Trump told The Times of London in an interview published online on Sunday that he would propose offering to end sanctions imposed on Russia for its annexation of Crimea in return for a nuclear arms reduction deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in a conference call with reporters, said Russia would wait until Trump took office before commenting on any proposed deals.
There were currently no talks on possible nuclear arms cuts with the United States and Russia did not intend to raise the sanctions issue itself in negotiations with foreign countries, said Peskov.
He also dismissed media reports of a planned meeting between Putin and Trump.
“All these statements about preliminary agreements about a meeting do not correspond to reality,” said Peskov.
“Right now there are no agreements, drafts or any preparations underway for a meeting because the president and Mr Trump have not discussed this in any way.”
Asked if the Kremlin agreed with Trump’s view that NATO is obsolete, something the U.S. president-elect repeated in the same interview, Peskov pointed out that the Kremlin had long been making the same point.