President Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia suspends its participation in eThe NewSTART Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty with the United States after accusing the West of being directly involved in attempts to attack its strategic air bases.

“I am compelled to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the strategic offensive arms treaty,” Putin said. But what does this really mean? what are the START treaties?

For decades, the US and Russia have tried to reach agreements to limit the number of strategic nuclear warheads that can be deployed. This common objective was included in the signing of the START treaties, Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (in English) or Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

The first START was signed in 1991, between the United States and the former USSR, before the Soviet collapse. It was in force between 1994 and 2009 and its objective was to reduce the number of nuclear warheads launched during the Cold War. They set a maximum target of 6,000 nuclear warheads, but before it came into force, both powers began to negotiate START II, ​​whose goal was to have a maximum number of 3,500 nuclear warheads.

Neither START I nor START II were successful. And in 2010, the then US president, Barack Obama, and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, signed the New START, which established a maximum of 1,550 nuclear warheads.

It came into force in 2011, between 2017-2021 with the presidency of Donald Trump it was questioned and it was extended in 2021 for five more years after President Biden took office.

New START allows American and Russian inspectors to ensure that both sides comply with the treaty. However, inspections were suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Talks between Moscow and Washington on resuming inspections were supposed to take place last November in Egypt, but Russia postponed them and neither side set a new date.

Has Russia threatened to withdraw before?

Russia said earlier this month that it wanted to preserve the treaty, despite what it called a destructive US approach to arms control. Together, Russia and the United States account for about 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads, and both sides have stressed that war between nuclear powers must be avoided at all costs.

However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed the two countries closer to direct confrontation than at any time in the last 60 years. The United States accused Russia of violating the treaty and said that Moscow refused to allow inspection activities on its territory.

NATO reaction

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg interprets this to mean that the arms control architecture has been “dismantled”. “With today’s decision on New START, the entire arms control architecture has been dismantled,” the Norwegian politician declared at a press conference at NATO headquarters.