MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/. Terminating the New START Treaty (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) could enable the United States to build up strategic weapons uncontrollably and bring global security to the brink of disaster, Head of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces' General Staff, Major General Andrey Sterlin and a leading researcher at the Center for Military Strategic Research of the General Staff’s Military Academy Alexander Khryapin wrote in an article for Krasnaya Zvezda.
The experts emphasized that the Treaty, which expires on February 5, 2021, is the last agreement in force in the international security and arms control system, but the United States announced their refusal to extend it.
"If the New START Treaty is terminated, the military-political situation will become significantly more complicated, since, in the absence of restrictive treaty norms, the United States may uncontrollably build up its strategic arms. We emphasize that this is an extremely dangerous path, because once again, like in the second half the 20th century, peace will balance on the brink of a global nuclear catastrophe," the article said.
According to the article, the fate of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) will remain a big question. "Terminating the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons may become the trigger that would lead to a nuclear arms race around the world and an increase in the number of countries possessing nuclear weapons," the experts wrote.