Duma approves bill on suspension of participation in New START

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
22 Feb 2023 12:59

The New START pact, first signed in April 2010, prohibits the United States and Russia from possessing more than 1,550 nuclear warheads on delivery systems.

A police officer patrols in front of the Russian State Duma in Moscow on April 8, 2022. (AFP)

Russian State Duma approved a bill proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to suspend Moscow's membership in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).

"The draft federal law provides that the Russian Federation suspends the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on measures to further reduce and limit strategic offensive arms, signed in Prague on April 8, 2010," the explanatory note to the bill stated.

The law still needs to be approved by the Federation Council and signed by the Russian President.

The law will enter into force following its official publication.

This comes shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed that Russia is suspending its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) in his state-of-the-nation address on Tuesday.

A flashback

On August 8, Moscow informed Washington that it is temporarily halting inspections at its facilities covered by the New START Treaty. The Russian Foreign Ministry explained that Russia was forced to resort to such actions "due to Washington’s persistence in implicitly restarting inspections on conditions that do not take into account the existing realities, create unilateral advantages for the United States and actually strip Russia of the right to carry out inspections on US soil."

US President Joe Biden had said that his administration is ready to negotiate a new arms control framework to replace the New START treaty with Russia upon its expiry in 2026.

It is noteworthy that Russia and the United States announced in February 2021 the entry into force of the decision to extend the START 3 Treaty on the Reduction of Strategic Offensive Arms for a period of five years.

The Treaty kept the two countries' nuclear arsenals at a much lower level than during the Cold War, as it set the number of installed strategic nuclear launchers at 700 and the number of nuclear warheads at 1,550.

Russia has constantly reiterated that the threat of nuclear war was real and should not be underestimated but that it should be avoided at all costs.