Putin backs out of the last standing nuclear disarmament pact between the US and Russia.

Russia President Vladimir Putin
(Image: Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), the most current pact signed with the United States for the regulation and reduction of nuclear weapons, has been suspended.

Putin clarified that "Moscow does not abandon, but merely suspends" compliance with the treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive armaments that expires in 2026, and he blamed the United States for this.

He asserted that "Russia will also carry out tests" of similar kind "if the US conducts nuclear tests with a new sort of strategic weapon." "We won't be the first to do it, of course. No one should be under the perilous delusion that global strategic parity is susceptible to destruction," He remarked.

The Russian president dissociated his choice from the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and the West's backing of Kiev. The NATO demand that Russia comply with the deal, which involves inspections of its nuclear sites, was described by him as "theatre of the absurd."

Since, as he noted, nations like the United Kingdom and France also possess nuclear arsenals, he argued that the Atlantic Alliance should be included in the pact. The strategic discussion between the two nations was scheduled to resume in Cairo in November 2022, but Russia abruptly chose to postpone it indefinitely because Washington "wasn't willing" to consider Russian interests.

Following Russia's military action in Ukraine, the United States halted the arms control discussion. In response, Russia informed Washington in August that it had decided to forbid US on-site inspections of its nuclear arsenal. Russia cited challenges in carrying out the same procedure in the US due to Western restrictions on the issuance of overflight permits and visas to Russian officials.

The New START was intended to decrease the number of nuclear warheads by 30%, to 1,550 per country, and especially includes an arsenal inspection mechanism. The number of intercontinental ballistic missiles, including those carried by submarines and strategic bombers fitted with nuclear bombs, was also restricted to 700. The number of strategic bombers equipped with nuclear weapons, whether deployed or not, as well as submarine launchers for ballistic missiles was likewise decreased to 800.

The last nuclear disarmament agreement between the two countries was extended for five years in February 2021 by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart, Joe Biden.