Russia announced on Monday that it is suspending planned US inspections of military sites stipulated within the framework of the START treaty, a strategic agreement between the two powers to limit nuclear arsenals.
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had informed the United States that facilities that are subject to inspections under the treaty will be “temporarily” exempted from inspections.
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Among the locations concerned are missile launch bases and air and naval bases where nuclear missiles are deployed.
This announcement comes in the context of the Russian offensive in Ukraine that began on February 24, at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin is boasting of new “invincible” weapons developed by Russia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry explains that Moscow is forced to take this measure due to the “unilateral sanctions” adopted by the West due to the Russian military campaign in Ukrainewhich prevent it from carrying out the inspections contemplated by the treaty on US territory.
“The Russian Federation is obliged to resort to this measure (…) due to existing realities that create unilateral advantages for the United States and that deprive Russia of its right to carry out inspections on US territory,” the statement from the Russian Federation said. Russian diplomacy.
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The official note argues that the US attitude does not take into account “the existing reality”, that it ignores both the parity and the equality of rights stipulated by the last nuclear treaty between the two superpowers, a situation that it considers “unacceptable”.
Remember that due to the sanctions against Russia, there is no normal air communication with the US, in addition to the fact that the airspace of its allies is closed to Russian aircraft.
The same restrictions do not apply in relation to the American inspectors, which is why the Russian side approached its counterpart, but without receiving a response, he specifies.
If all these problems are not resolved, he warns, the inspection regime under START III cannot be resumed, a step that would be “premature.”
Russia advocates cooperating with the US in this field, although it calls on the White House not to force the resumption of nuclear inspections with counterproductive measures and to take into account the current reality, including the risks linked to the epidemic situation due to the recent increase in covid-19 cases.
In addition to insisting that the suspension is provisional, something that the document allows, it highlights that Moscow remains faithful to the treaty, which it considers a “very important instrument for maintaining international stability and security.”
The treaty signed in 2010 limits the arsenals of the great powers to a maximum of 1,550 deployed warheads for each, a reduction of 30% from the limit previously set in 2002.
The announcement comes a week after US President Joe Biden proposed to Moscow immediate negotiations for the signing of a new nuclear treaty.
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Of course, Biden warned that any negotiation “requires a partner willing to operate in good faith” and recalled that “Russia’s brutal and unjustified aggression in Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe and constitutes an attack against the fundamental principles of the international order”.
That same day, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, assured that “in a nuclear war there can be no winners”.
*With information from AFP and EFE
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