Putin announces Russia suspends New START nuke pact participation

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
21 Feb 15:30
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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.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gesturing as he gives his annual state of the nation address in Moscow, Feb. 21, 2023 (AP)

In his state-of-the-nation address, Russian President Vladimir Putin reveals that Russia is suspending its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).

"I have to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Let me say it again — [Russia] does not withdraw from the treaty, namely suspends its participation. But before returning to its discussion, we need to understand what countries such as France and the United Kingdom consider to be as their strategic arsenals, and how we will take them into account, that is, the combined strike potential of the [North Atlantic] Alliance," Putin tersely stated.

The US has issued an intolerable ultimatum to Russia on the New START treaty: Moscow must comply with the document's requirements, while Washington will do whatever it wants, as per the Russian President.

"Now, through representatives of NATO, in fact, they are putting forward an ultimatum — 'Russia should fulfill everything you agreed to, including the START treaty, and we will behave as we please,' as if there is no connection between the problems of START and, say, the conflict in Ukraine, other hostile actions against our country. As if there are no loud statements that they want to inflict a strategic defeat to us," Putin said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he described NATO's demand that Russia returns to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which includes providing access to nuclear sites for inspections, as "absurd".

"At the beginning of February, NATO made a statement with actual demands to Russia, as they put it, 'to return to the implementation of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty,' including the admission of inspections to our nuclear, and defense facilities. Well, I don't even know what to call it — it's some kind of theater of the absurd. We know that the West is directly involved in the attempts of the Kiev regime to strike at the bases of our strategic aviation," Putin said.

Drones used for this purpose were "equipped and modernized with the assistance of NATO specialists," the President added.

"And now they also want to inspect our defense facilities. In modern conditions, today's confrontation, it sounds like some kind of nonsense," Putin said.

He further underlined that Russian-US relations have deteriorated, adding that this is Washington's "making".

Putin explained that by demanding that Russia resume inspections of nuclear sites, NATO, in fact, declared its desire to become a party to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), announcing that Moscow supports this decision that is overdue.

"Having issued its collective statement, NATO actually made an application to become a party to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. We agree with this, please. Moreover, we believe that such a formulation of the issue is long overdue," Putin said in his address to the Federal Assembly.

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.