On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials, that Washington had privately warned Moscow not to deploy a new nuclear-armed antisatellite weapon, which would allegedly violate the Outer Space Treaty and threaten US national security interests.
"There is no and cannot be any progress on this issue. The reason is clear - the absurdity of US's accusations against us of allegedly intending to deploy some systems with a nuclear component of a weapon-grade nature in space. As it has been continuously stressed recently, and as [Russian] President [Vladimir Putin] said, we have no such intentions ... the contact on this issue is completely unproductive," Ryabkov told reporters.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister said that Russia is not going to withdraw from the 1967 Outer Space Treaty that bans the deployment of nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction in space.
"No, we do not consider [the possibility of withdrawal from the treaty]," Ryabkov said.
He also deemed as unacceptable leaks from the US side on the talks held between US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Russian Presidential Foreign Policy Advisor Yury Ushakov, which Moscow and Washington agreed to keep confidential.
The US has not provided any evidence after accusing Russia of planning to deploy nuclear weapons in space, Ryabkov added.