Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a message to the Federal Assembly that Russia was suspending participation in the New START Treaty. On February 28, Putin signed the corresponding law and Moscow delivered an official note to that effect to the US embassy.
According to Ryabkov, Washington is interested in the details of Moscow’s decision to suspend participation in the treaty. At the same time, Ryabkov called the US position on the treaty “quite destructive and with no possibility of continuing work as before.”
START was signed between Russia and the United States in 2010. It followed that by February 2018, each country’s arsenals should not exceed 700 deployed ICBMs (including submarines and heavy bombers), 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers, and 1,550 warheads. On the control date, Moscow fulfilled its obligations. The United States also announced that it had reached the agreed levels, but Washington did, among other things, thanks to the unilateral exclusion of some weapons from compensation.
Vladimir Putin stressed in his message that now, before talking about returning to START, Russia wants to understand how the strategic arsenals of other Western countries and NATO’s combined attack potential will be taken into account.
