Moscow: Russia proposed on Monday that once expires in February, a key treaty with the United States will remain in compliance with nuclear warhead restrictions, but only for a year, if Washington does the same.
New Start a treatysigned in 2010, is the last remaining nuclear weapons reduction agreement between the world’s first two atomic powers and limits the number of nuclear warheads that both sides can deploy.
But the inspection was suspended Coronavirus disease Crisis on the extension of the agreement in recent years collapsed as the agreement was extended due to tensions in Ukraine conflictinspire people’s fear, that is, both sides expire, and both sides will destroy restrictions.
“In many ways, completely abandoning the legacy of this agreement would be a wrong and short-sighted step,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised conference.
Putin added: “To avoid triggering a strategic weapon race… Russia is ready to continue to comply with the central quantitative restrictions of the new beginning treaty one year after February 5, 2026.”
“We believe this measure will only be feasible if the United States acts in a similar way and does not take measures that undermine or undermine the balance of deterrence potential,” he said.
Russia freeze It has participated in a new starting point in 2023, but has been voluntarily following the restrictions set in the treaty. The agreement limits both parties to a maximum of 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads, a decrease of nearly 30% from previous restrictions in 2002.
This also allows both sides to conduct on-site inspections of each other’s nuclear arsenals, although these arsenals have ceased during the coronavirus pandemic and have not recovered since then. Putin’s proposal on Monday did not stipulate the resumption of these inspections, which was at the heart of the original agreement.
Nuclear saber rattles
Heloise Fayet, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations, said the proposal was a way Putin could “control the narrative” after U.S. President Donald Trump proposed denuclearization negotiations with Russia and China.
She will also link the proposal to Trump’s plan to build a large-scale air defense shield covering the United States, known as the “golden dome.” “This is something Russians don’t want. What the Russians mean is that if the Golden Dome project gains credibility, if the Americans promise, there will be no more restrictions under the new beginning.”
In recent years, anti-strengthening talks between Russia and the United States have jointly controlled more than 80% of the world’s nuclear warheads. In 2019, the two countries evacuated the landmark Medium-range nuclear force (INF) treaty.
The agreement ended in 1987 at the end of then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 2023, Putin signed a law that revoked Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, although Moscow said it would stick to a moratorium on atomic testing.
Russia has also been accused of core harassment since the missionary forces entered Ukraine in February 2022. In the days after the attack, Putin put his nuclear weapons on high alert.
Posted in Dawn on September 23, 2025
