By Vladimir Isachenkov,
The Associated Press & The Washington Post,
28 January 2010

Russia: Arms deal with US possible within weeks

MOSCOW -- Russian and U.S. negotiators could hammer out a new nuclear arms reduction deal within weeks, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

The statement from ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov followed weeks of uncertainty and sent a strong signal that the long-running talks were nearing an end.

"We hope it will take just a few weeks for our negotiators to reach agreement," Lyakin-Frolov said in a telephone interview.

Russia and the U.S. have been negotiating a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START I, that expired on Dec. 5. They had hoped to reach a deal before the end of the year, but differences persisted and officials had been evasive about a timeline.

Lyakin-Frolov said the consultations held during last week`s visit to Moscow by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, and retired Gen. Jim Jones, President Barack Obama`s national security adviser, were successful.

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Tuesday that Moscow and Washington "had a productive interlude" since the negotiators took a break before Christmas. He said the talks will resume in Geneva on Monday.

The talks have stalled over Russia`s opposition to retaining the ban on the encryption of the telemetry monitoring data on missile tests. START banned such encryption so each side could monitor missile tests from a distance to make sure the other side complies with the treaty.

Russia has balked at keeping that provision, saying the exchange of data would be unfair since it is testing new weapons to replace the Soviet-era ones while the U.S. isn`t developing any new missiles.

Russia`s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned the U.S. last month that it must share information about its missile defense plans if it wants Russia to provide data on its new weapons, but the U.S. has insisted missile defense should be separate from the current negotiations.