Russian President Vladimir Putin recently announced the suspension of the terrorist country's participation in START. The United States said that the treaty is still in effect.
According to him, the United States and Russia report before the launch of ballistic missiles subject to registration under the SPRS. This was reported in the US State Department.
Suspension of Russia's participation in the PRSP has not yet entered into force
Mallory Stewart, Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, said Russia's suspension of participation in a key nuclear arms control treaty has not yet gone into effect.
The suspension has not yet officially entered into force in the sense that we still receive notifications, as we do today, according to the agreement, regular messages. But we expect that once this suspension is formalized, they will stop,” Stewart explained.
Putin announced last week that Russia would suspend its participation in the New START Treaty, the only agreement among the world's largest nuclear arsenals. In the US, the move was called “irresponsible.”
The United States is trying to follow the progress of negotiations with the Russians to really understand what can be included in the suspension and what can be continued, Stewart said.
“Now we expect that these will only be notifications of launches in accordance with the 1988 agreement, and that they have promised to comply with the actual quantitative restrictions,” the official said.
What is START-3 or New START
This is the last arms control treaty between the US and Russia. The document was signed in Prague in the spring of 2010 for a 10-year period. On February 3, 2021, the US continued the New Start. The agreement provides that each side reduces its stockpile of nuclear warheads to 1,550 units, as well as to 700 units for deployed carriers – intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers.
US hopes Russia is still interested in PRSP
Stewart said the United States is very hopeful that Russia is still interested in arms control. After all, it is obvious that it is in their internal interests, and in the interests of the United States and global security, to continue these discussions.
“We will meet with them. We must meet with them. This is what both countries need to do to continue to focus on international stability and risk reduction,” the assistant secretary said.
At the same time, she noted that Putin's messages seem to cast doubt on the assumptions that the US has always had. The point is that the Russian president really values arms control.
“By tying this to Ukraine now, by tying it to an immutable object in the sense that our support for Ukraine will not be limited by their decision on the PRSP, they are really questioning their support for the treaty itself,” Stewart concluded.
Note! Secretary of State Anthony Blinken almost immediately commented on Putin's decision to temporarily suspend Russia's participation in START, calling it irresponsible. According to him, despite what is happening in the world, the United States is ready to talk about the renewal of the agreement on nuclear weapons. The states will be closely watching “what Russia is actually doing.”
