Both houses of Russia’s parliament have promptly endorsed President Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the United States, known as New START treaty.
The decision gained approval on Wednesday, February 22, 2023.
On Tuesday, February 21, 2023, Putin declared that Moscow was suspending its participation in the 2010 New START treaty in his state-of-the-nation address, saying that Russia cannot accept U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites under the pact while Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared the goal of Russia’s defeat in Ukraine.
Then-Presidents; Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed the New START treaty in 2010. The pact limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement envisaged sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.
Just days before the treaty was due to expire in February 2021, Russia and the United States agreed to extend it for another five years.
The Russian President stressed that Moscow is not withdrawing from the pact altogether, and the Russian Foreign Ministry disclosed that the country would respect the caps on nuclear weapons set under the treaty and will keep notifying the U.S. about test launches of ballistic missiles.
Explaining his decision to suspend Russia’s obligations under the 2010 New START treaty, Putin accused the U.S. and its NATO allies of openly declaring the goal of Russia’s defeat in Ukraine.
“They want to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on us and try to get to our nuclear facilities at the same time,” Putin said. He later sent a draft bill on the pact’s suspension to the Kremlin-controlled Parliament.
Noting that the decision to suspend Russia’s participation in New START could be reversed, the Foreign Ministry urged the U.S. to deescalate tensions and create a proper environment for the treaty’s implementation.
Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Head of Russia’s Security Council that is chaired by President Vladimir Putin, emphasized on Wednesday that the suspension of Russia’s participation in the pact was a signal to the U.S. that Moscow is ready to use nuclear weapons to protect itself.
“If the U.S. wants Russia’s defeat, we have the right to defend ourselves with any weapons, including nuclear,” Medvedev opined on his messaging app channel.
“Let the U.S. elites who have lost touch with reality think about what they got. If the U.S. wants Russia to be defeated, we are standing on the verge of a global conflict.”
Dmitry Medvedev
“Reversible And Can Be Reviewed”
Leonid Slutsky, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house, also known as the State Duma, emphasized that the suspension is “reversible and can be reviewed if our Western opponents come back to reason and realize their responsibility for destroying the global security system.”
Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov also noted that it would be up to Putin to decide whether Moscow could return to the pact.
“The President will determine if and when the conditions for reviewing or clarifying yesterday’s decision emerge,” Ryabkov informed reporters.
Ryabkov noted that Russia’s surveillance capability will allow it to keep track of U.S. nuclear forces even without exchanges of data and inspections that were envisaged by the New START treaty.
“We will undoubtedly follow the actions by the U.S. and its allies very closely and take further countermeasures if necessary.”
Sergei Ryabkov
According to U.N. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, the U.N. Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres has called for Russia and the U.S. to immediately return to dialogue because “a world without nuclear arms control is a far more dangerous and unstable one with potentially catastrophic consequences.”
