Russian dictator Vladimir Putin proposed on Monday (22) to the United States to extend Start III for a year, the last nuclear disarmament treaty still in force between the two powers and expiring on February 5, 2026.
“Russia is arranged after February 5, 2026, to continue for a year by fulfilling the limitations provided for by Start III,” Putin said in a live television broadcast during a Russian Security Council meeting.
However, he stressed that this measure “will only be feasible on the condition that the US acts analogously and does not take steps that mine or destroy the current equivalence of deterioration potentials.”
Putin classified as a “wrong” step and “myopic of many points of view” a possible definitive united state renunciation of the treaty, which was signed in April 2010 by the then American presidents, Barack Obama, and Russian, Dmitri Medvedev.
“In particular, it would negatively reverberate from our point of view, when it comes to ensuring the objectives of the non -nuclear non -proliferation treaty,” he said.
While accused the West of the “degradation” of strategic stability again, Putin pointed out that Moscow considers “justified” to avoid a greater arms race “maintain the status quo.”
In his opinion, the Russian initiative could contribute to the creation of a favorable atmosphere to the resumption of strategic dialogue with Washington, stagnant for years.
On the other hand, he asked the corresponding departments to “scrupulously” the American activities of strategic arsenals, antimysis defense systems and weaponry in space.
Destestabilizing steps like these by the United States “can throw the efforts on our part to maintain the status quo within the scope of Start. We will react properly,” he warned.
“No one should have any doubt. Russia is in a position to answer any threat (…), respond not with words, but with the adoption of technical-military measures,” he added.
Putin recalled that a few months ago, Kremlin resigned to the moratorium for the installation of short and medium range missiles as a reaction to installation in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region of American and Western analog systems “that directly threaten Russia’s safety.”
Russia has emphasized on several occasions in the last few months that time to renew Start III, also known as New Start, was ending.
Dictator Putin suspended the application of the treaty, although he did not abandon him on February 21, 2023, after which Western experts could not inspect Russian facilities.
The treaty limits the number of strategic nuclear weapons, to a maximum of 1,550 nuclear warheads and 700 ballistic systems for each of the two powers, on land, sea or air.
