President Putin announced that Russia is suspending participation in the START III treaty
Russia is suspending its participation in the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START or START-III). This was announced on Tuesday, February 21, by President Vladimir Putin during the announcement of the message to the Federal Assembly. The speech of the head of state was broadcast TelegramKremlin canal.
The START III bilateral treaty is the main agreement currently in force, which regulates the quantitative and qualitative composition of the strategic nuclear forces of Russia and the United States, whose arsenals are the largest on the planet.
“Now, through NATO representatives, in fact, they are putting forward an ultimatum – “you, Russia, carry out everything that you agreed on, including the START treaty, and we will behave as we please,” they say, there is no connection between the problems of START and , say, the conflict in Ukraine, other hostile actions against our country,” Putin said in his message. “As if there were no loud statements that they want to inflict a strategic defeat on us. This is the height of hypocrisy and cynicism. But you can’t call them idiots, they are still not stupid people: they want to inflict a strategic defeat on us and climb on our nuclear facilities.
NATO’s demands to return the alliance’s inspection of Russia’s nuclear defense projects under START III are a theater of absurdity, Putin added.
“Well, I don’t even know what to call it – this is some kind of theater of the absurd. We know that the West is directly involved in the attempts of the Kyiv regime to strike at our strategic aviation bases,” the Russian president criticized NATO’s position.
According to him, the Ukrainian drones used for the attacks were equipped and modernized with the assistance of NATO specialists.
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Russia will not completely withdraw from the START III treaty
The head of state focused on the fact that Moscow was not withdrawing from the treaty, but was suspending its participation. For further interaction within the framework of the agreement, the Russian side needs to understand exactly how NATO’s total nuclear arsenal will be taken into account, he noted.
“We must understand for ourselves what such countries of the North Atlantic Alliance as France and Great Britain still claim, and how we will take into account their strategic arsenals, that is, the alliance’s combined strike potential,” the president said.
After the end of the message, the State Duma stated that Russia, due to the suspension of participation in START III, could increase the number of warheads. This was stated by the head of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov. The parliamentarian explained that such actions would be taken if necessary.
Putin said that the United States could conduct nuclear tests. Then Russia will hold them too
According to the head of state, Moscow is aware that “certain figures in Washington” are thinking about the possibility of “natural testing” of their nuclear weapons. According to him, the US is developing new types of nuclear weapons.
In this situation, the Russian Ministry of Defense and Rosatom must ensure readiness for testing Russian nuclear weapons. Of course, we will not be the first to do this. But if the United States tests, then we will. No one should have the dangerous illusion that global strategic parity can be destroyed
By doing so, Putin pointed to the threat of US rejection of yet another agreement in the field of nuclear disarmament – the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which was adopted on September 10, 1996 by the 50th session of the UN General Assembly and opened for signature on September 24 of the same year.
In his message, the president announced that he had signed a decree on putting new strategic complexes on combat duty. According to him, the document on the start of operation of new ground-based strategic missile systems was signed a week ago.
NATO announced the collapse of nuclear deterrence
NATO regrets Russia’s decision to suspend participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty announced by Putin. This was stated by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a press conference, transmits RBC.
“With today’s decision, the entire architecture of the arms control system has been destroyed,” he stressed. Stoltenberg said he “strongly” recommends that Russia reconsider the decision.
START III was signed in 2010 and extended in 2021
START III is the latest agreement between Russia and the United States in the field of strategic offensive arms reduction, which was concluded in 2010 in Prague. This was preceded by a “reset” announced by then US President Barack Obama, which soured after Moscow’s forceful response to Georgia’s August 2008 invasion of South Ossetia.
The treaty, signed with Obama by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, provides for a reduction for each side of deployed nuclear warheads to 1,550 units, and intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers to 700 units.
The agreement was designed for ten years with the possibility of extension by mutual agreement of the parties for another five years, which was done in February 2021. Thus, START III will finally go down in history on February 5, 2026.
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