Russia suspended its participation in the nuclear disarmament treaty with the US

In his annual speech in front of both houses of Parliament, Vladimir Putin announced the suspension of his participation in the nuclear disarmament treaty – known as New START – and blamed the West for the escalation in the war with Ukraine. Russia suspends its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (known as New Start),” the president first announced. He also later called for NATO to join the treaty for fear of future attacks. “The United States is not the only nuclear power. France and Britain also have nuclear arsenals, they are perfecting them, modernizing them and targeting us,” he said. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was signed in 2011 by Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev, with the aim of improving diplomatic relations. Thus, the agreement established different specific points, such as the limit of 1,550 nuclear warheads and reciprocal inspections in military installations. However, Russia suspended this last point in August 2022, arguing that the United States complicated the reviews in its own facilities. On the other hand, Putin then blamed the West for the advance in the war against Ukraine. “The Western elites do not hide their goals of strategically defeating Russia which means ending us once and for all, they plan to transform the local conflict into a phase of global confrontation,” he alleged. He added that “the responsibility for stoking the Ukrainian conflict, for its escalation, for the number of victims, lies entirely with the Western elites.”

Original source in Spanish