Russia suspends NEW START

Russia suspends NEW START

News: Days before the first anniversary of the beginning of the war in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin announced in an address to his nation that Russia is suspending its participation in the New START, the last remaining major military agreement with the United States.

What is NEW START?
 The name START comes from the original “Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty”, known as START-I, which was signed between the US and the erstwhile USSR in 1991, and came into force in 1994.
 START-I, which capped the number of nuclear warheads (to 6,000) and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs to 1,600), lapsed in 2009.
 This was replaced first by the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT)/the Treaty of Moscow and then by the New START treaty.
 The New START, officially, the “Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms”, entered into force on February 5, 2011, and placed new verifiable limits on intercontinental-range nuclear weapons. For example, 700 deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs (submarine-launched) and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments, etc.
 The US and Russian Federation subsequently agreed to extend the treaty through February 4, 2026.

How is compliance with treaty ensured? What is latest situation on compliance?
 The two parties have conducted on-site inspections, exchanged notifications, held meetings with the Bilateral Consultative Commission, and held data exchanges.
 The US claims that Russia was not complying with the New START, jeopardising a source of stability in their relationship.
 While Russia believes that the USA’s goal is Russia’s strategic defeat, and for Russia the “theatre of the absurd” (the idea of existentialism) is important.

Conclusion
 Over the decades, the two sides signed various arms control agreements, imposing breaks on the nuclear arms race – an alarming feature of the Cold War competition.
 However, deep fissures in their relationship and the suspension of almost all the treaties in recent years, have once again raised the risk of a nuclear arms race.