The article provides an analysis of the likely goals and positions of Russia and the United States on nuclear arms control. The U.S. administration aims to reach an agreement with Russia to control all of the parties' nuclear arsenals, including tactical nuclear weapons (TNW), as well as China's involvement in nuclear arms negotiations bilaterally or multilaterally in order to establish control over China's nuclear arsenal - without reducing its nuclear arsenals. Russia's likely position in the negotiations is a solution of the problems of missile defense, strategic high-precision non-nuclear weapons and space weapons. The authors believe that without a high level of trust between the parties, there are little good prospects for the continuation of the arms control dialogue for the foreseeable future.