21.02.2023
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced today the suspension of his country’s compliance with START III or New START, the last nuclear disarmament treaty still in force between Russia and the US.
In making the announcement, this Tuesday (02.21.2023) during his address on the state of the nation, Putin qualified that “Russia it does not abandon, but only suspends” compliance with the treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive arms that expires in 2026, for which he blamed the United States.
He advanced that “if the US carries out nuclear tests with a new type of strategic weapon, Russia will also carry out tests” of that class.
“Of course, we will not be the first to do so (…). No one should harbor the dangerous illusion that strategic global parity can be destroyed,” he commented.
The Russian leader separated his decision from the current conflict in Ukraine and the West’s support for Kiev.
He branded as “theatre of the absurd” the statement in which NATO sued Russia to comply with said treaty, which includes inspections of its nuclear facilities.
In this regard, he advocated for the Atlantic Alliance to become part of the treaty, since, he recalled, countries like the United Kingdom and France also have nuclear arsenals.
In November 2022 both countries were going to resume the strategic dialogue in Cairo, but Russia decided at the last minute to postpone it indefinitely due to Washington’s “unwillingness” to take Russian priorities into account.
Test with a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile. (2021).
The United States suspended the dialogue on arms control after Russia’s war intervention in Ukraine.
Russia in turn informed Washington in August of its decision to ban US on-site inspections of its arsenal of nuclear weapons, citing difficulties in doing the same in the US due to Western sanctions on overflight permits and granting of visas to Russian officials.
In February 2021, Putin and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, extended the last nuclear disarmament treaty between the two powers, which had been signed in 2010, for five years.
The New START, which specifically includes an arsenal inspection system, was to reduce the number of nuclear warheads by 30%, to 1,550 per country.
In addition, it limited to 700 the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles, those deployed in submarines and strategic bombers equipped for nuclear weapons.
It also reduced to 800 the number of intercontinental missile launchers, submarine ballistic missile launchers and nuclear-equipped strategic bombers, whether deployed or not.
CP (efe, afp)