MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. Russia will keep working on the prolongation of the strategic arms reduction treaty New START, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS on Friday.

As asked about the future of New START in the wake of the US pullout from the INF Treaty, Ryabkov said "everything will depend on the US."

"We’ve been pressing for the preservation of the New START all the way and we will keep doing so. We will be moving in this direction," he said. "For prolonging the treaty it is essential to address the issue of reconfiguration of part of the US strategic delivery vehicles in a way that we are unable to verify and be sure the reconfiguration has been carried out."

"If the policy of ruining this agreement prevails in the United States, a very different situation will occur that has not existed in international relations for many decades," Ryabkov said. "Many approaches and many aspects of our policy will then be considered in a different vein."

Moscow and Washington signed the New START in 2010. The treaty will stay in effect till 2021 and may be prolonged by five years. On July 31, US presidential national security adviser John Bolton said the New START was unlikely to be prolonged but the US administration had not made any decisions on that score yet.