Less than a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that Russia was suspending participation in its nuclear weapons treaty with the United States, the Russian Federation’s State Duma unanimously agreed to formally suspend participation in the treaty.
The rubber-stamp approval by the parliamentary body of Putin’s announcement that Moscow was disengaging from the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) also gives the Russian president exclusive authority to determine when—or if—it will resume participating again.
“As of today, Russia is suspending its participation in the strategic offensive arms treaty,” Putin said in a Feb. 21 national address to the Federal Assembly that was delivered nearly one year after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We’re not withdrawing from the agreement. We’re just suspending [our participation in] it.”
The New START pact, most recently extended by the United States and the Russian Federation in February 2021, obligates both nations to maintain the same number of long-range nuclear weapons in their arsenals that they had in 2018 through the treaty’s February 2026 termination.
New START is the latest iteration of five decades of strategic weapons accords between the world’s largest nuclear powers, beginning with 1972’s Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
In 2021, shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden took office, the treaty was extended by another five years.
On Jan. 31, the U.S. State Department told Congress in a report that Russia had ceased participating in the treaty since the start of the Ukraine invasion.
“Russia’s refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of U.S.–Russian nuclear arms control.” the State Department said in its Russia New START Noncompliance Determination.
