Russia suspends New START treaty

Subject : International Relations

Section: International Agreements

Concept :

President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia is suspending its participation in the New START treaty, the only remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia.

New START Treaty: Background

The name START comes from the original “Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty”, known as START-I.
START-I was signed between the US and the erstwhile USSR in 1991, and came into force in 1994.
START-I capped the numbers of nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that each side could deploy at 6,000 and 1,600 respectively.
START-I lapsed in 2009 and was replaced first by the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT, also known as the Treaty of Moscow), and then by the New START treaty.

New START Treaty

New START Treaty is officially known as – “Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms”.
It was signed by then-President Barack Obama and then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in 2010.
The treaty entered into force in February 2011, and placed new verifiable limits on intercontinental-range nuclear weapons.
Under the treaty, the United States and Russia were given seven years to scale back their stockpiles of strategic offensive arms — broadly, nuclear warheads deployed by missiles, planes or submarines that can travel long distances.
After February 2018, both the countries had to maintain the stockpiles of these arms within the limits fixed by the treaty, for the period the treaty remained in force.
The US and Russia Federation subsequently agreed to extend the treaty through February 4, 2026.

What limits did the New START impose on the two countries?

700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments;
1,550 nuclear warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs, and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments (each such heavy bomber is counted as one warhead toward this limit);
800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.

How is compliance with the treaty ensured?

Detailed procedures for the implementation and verification of the central limits, and all treaty obligations, are part of the treaty terms.
The treaty provides for 18 on-site inspections per year for US and Russian inspection teams.

Compliance status

Both countries met the limits spelled out in the treaty by February 2018 and appear to have remained at or below them since then.
However, regular inspections mandated by the agreement have not been held for the past three years — initially because of the coronavirus pandemic, and later because relations soured after Russia invaded Ukraine.