The Kremlin said on Monday it was in "sporadic" contact with the United States on issues related to nuclear arms, days after President Vladimir Putin said he was "not bluffing" over his readiness to use such weapons if Russia felt its territorial integrity was under threat.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two sides had maintained a limited open channel of dialogue to allow for the "emergency exchange of messages" between the world's two largest nuclear powers.
