MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. The United States have been flagrantly violating key provisions of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) for a long time, the Russian foreign ministry said on Tuesday after Moscow suspended its participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).

"The most important thing from the point of view of assessing the situation with the implementation of the New START treaty is the fact that Washington has been grossly violating the treaty’s central provisions on qualitative restrictions on the parties’ corresponding arms for a long time. It is linked with the illegitimate unilateral refusal to take into account more than 100 strategic offensive weapons, which were renamed by Washington so that they don’t fall under the treaty or said to be reequipped. However, Russia was denied a possibility to reliably make sure that the results of such reequipment are in conformity with the New START, i.e. to implement the procedure directly envisaged by the treaty. We have repeatedly pointed to this flagrant violation," it said.

According to the ministry, the United States’ attempts to probe into the defense of a number of Russian facilities falling under the New START treaty by means of backing Kiev’s attacks on them have become blatantly provocative and risky. "Apart from that, the United States’ attempts at ‘sounding out the defense of a number of Russian facilities under the New START have become flagrantly provocative and extremely risky. Armed attacks on them were staged by the puppet regime in Kiev with Washington’s military-technical and information-and-intelligence backing," it said.

The ministry said that it was utterly cynical of the United States to insist on immediate access to these and other strategic facilities in Russia hiding behind the New START provisions on inspection activities. "It is especially perplexing in a situation when Washington’s anti-Russian restrictions have already affected the efficiency of the treaty’s procedures linked with the verification activities. As a result, Russia’s possibilities to conduct verification activities on the US territory freely and on an equal basis were undermined giving obvious unilateral advantages to the American side," the ministry noted.

The Russian side has repeatedly told the US about its concerns and called on it to take measures to improve the situation. "But instead, Washington continued to deliberately make vile steps to undermine Russia’s security. The stakes in this total hybrid war unleashed against our country by the Americans are being raised," the ministry said. "Bearing all this in mind, the Russian side was forced to arrive at a conclusion that the United States has committed a gross violation of the New START, i.e. such a violation which is of principal importance for the implementation of the treaty’s goals."

According to the ministry, the Russian side has repeatedly drawn attention to the deplorable situation with the implementation of the treaty stemming from the United States’ destructive actions in the context of this treaty and to its "course toward all-round weakening of Russia’s security and political and economic ‘suffocation’ of our country."

"Washington’s utter hostility, confrontation and its open course toward willful escalation of the conflict in and around Ukraine have created a principally different situation in the sphere of security," it noted. "We would like to recall the treaty’s preamble, which is its inseparable part, states the parties’ commitment to the principle of indivisible security and trust-and cooperation-based relations. But today, the United States is openly seeking to deliver a ‘strategic defeat’ to Russia, and Washington-instigated tension goes far beyond the Ukrainian crisis - the United States and the West are seeking to harm our country at any possible level, in any sphere and in any region of the world."

According to the Russian foreign ministry, there are grounds to say that the US policy is geared to undermine Russia’s national security.

"In such a situation, it looks to be no longer possible to deal with the United States and the West in general in a regular mode - both in general and in what concerns the sphere of arms control, which is inseparable from the geopolitical and military-strategic realities," it said.

The ministry also noted that serious changes in the security landscape are also linked with the fact that "the consolidation of Western countries on the anti-Russian basis tells on aspects of their nuclear policy." "Thus, NATO member states, which have, for decades, been practicing the so-called joint nuclear missions and have openly declared the North Atlantic bloc a ‘nuclear alliance,’ are focusing on nuclear weapons in NATO’s common concepts, declaring their commitment to further strengthening and boosting combat capacities of potentials in this sphere ‘assigned’ to NATO. Calls are being heard for expanding the nuclear infrastructure and moving it eastwards. They make no secret that these efforts are aimed against our country," the ministry stressed.

In this context, the ministry noted the growing importance of the factor of the aggregate nuclear arsenal of the three NATO nuclear powers, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. "It is quite symbolic that all NATO countries, including the United Kingdom and France, have openly demonstrated their involvement in the problem of strategic offensive weapons and issued a joint statement siding with the US approaches. This political act confirms that Russia’s position on the necessity to consider the nuclear potentials of the three Western nuclear powers cumulatively and take this factor into account in the process of nuclear arms reduction and the consideration of the New START’s future is well-grounded," it said.

Apart from that, the Russian foreign ministry stressed that for decades Washington has been ignoring the links between strategic offensive and strategic defensive arms, which is reflected in the New START treaty.

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 how the New START will take into account not only the United States’ arsenals but also stockpiles of other NATO nuclear powers, namely the United Kingdom and France.