MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. Russia has suspended its participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) to make sure that nuclear parity is still observed, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
He stressed that Russia is not withdrawing from the treaty but suspends its participation in it. "It is very important because what the United States and other countries insisted on in terms of inspections is unrealizable amid the current confrontation," he told the RT television channel. "The key goal of our country’s president is to make sure that this nuclear parity continues to be ensured."
In his State of the Nation Address delivered earlier on Tuesday, Putin announced that Russia is suspending its participation in the New START treaty but is not withdrawing from it. The president stressed that before returning to the discussion of the extension of the New START Treaty, the Russian side wants to understand "what such North Atlantic Alliance countries as France and the United Kingdom are claiming at" and how their strategic potentials will be taken into account.