On Tuesday, the Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow was suspending its participation in the New START treaty — the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States.
This come amid the rising tensions between the two nations over Ukraine- Russia conflict.
Russia should stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the US does so, a move that would end a global ban on nuclear weapons tests in place since Cold War times, international news agency AP reported quoting Putin saying in his address.
Putin also accused the US and its NATO allies of openly declaring the goal of Russia’s defeat in Ukraine.
“They want to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on us and try to get to our nuclear facilities at the same time,” Putin said as per AP report, declaring his decision to suspend Russia’s participation in the treaty.
HE added, “In this context, I have to declare today that Russia is suspending its participation in the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Arms.”
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) was signed on April 8, 2010, in Prague by the United States and Russia and entered into force on Febryary 5, 2011.
New START replaced the 1991 START I treaty, which expired in December 2009, and superseded the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), which terminated when New START entered into force.
