A top Russian diplomat says nuclear arms controls talks between Moscow and Washington will be largely guided by negotiations on security demands the Kremlin laid out in December amid an ongoing crisis with neighboring Ukraine. In an interview with the RIA Novosti news agency published, Vladimir Yermakov, the head of nuclear nonproliferation and controls at Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said the discussions over security guarantees have taken priority over strategic arms controls talks. “Our further dialogue with the Americans regarding the strategic stability, to a big extent, will depend on how the issues linked to security guarantees are solved. At this point, no understanding has been reached regarding the schedule of new meetings for the strategic dialogue,” Yermakov said. Yermakov reiterated Russia’s demand to the West about what he called the “inadmissibility” of NATO’s further eastward expansion and the “necessity to return the configuration of the North Atlantic alliance’s forces and details to the situation that was there in 1997.” (https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-arms-control-security-guarantees-nato/31691046.html) There are currently no new talks scheduled on strategic arms control.