MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/. On February 21, 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly that Russia was suspending its participation in New START nuclear arms reduction treaty - the sole arms limitation treaty between Russia and the United States currently in force. The Russian leader emphasized that this step did not mean complete withdrawal from the agreement and that Russia might resume participation only after it realizes how NATO's combined strike arsenal will be counted.

Signing, ratification, reservations

The strategic arms reduction treaty was signed by Russian and US presidents, Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, in Prague on April 8, 2010. Its official name is the Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (also known as New START or the Prague Treaty).

The US Senate approved it on December 22, 2010, and Russia’s State Duma and Federation Council - on January 25 and 26, 2011. At the moment of ratification the parties made a number of reservations. The resolution of the US Congress outlined that "the new treaty does not impose any limitations on the deployment of missile defenses," including those in Europe. Moscow reserved the right to withdraw from the treaty, if the US missile defense in its development reached a point where it began to pose a threat to Russia. It was stressed that the provisions of the preamble, which spelled out the relationship between strategic offensive arms and missile defenses, shall have legal force and must be fully taken into account by the signatories.

The ratification laws were signed by the president of Russia on January 28, 2011, and by the US president on February 2, 2011. The instruments of ratification were exchanged in Munich on February 5, 2011. The document entered into force to replace the Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START-1) of July 31, 1991 and the Treaty Between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Strategic Offensive Reductions (SORT) of May 24, 2002.

Key provisions

The treaty stipulates that each party reduces and limits its strategic offensive arms so that seven years after its entry into force their total amount shall not exceed: 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and heavy bombers (HB); 1,550 warheads; and 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers of ICBMs and SLBMs, as well as heavy bombers. The treaty introduced the concept of "non-deployed" delivery vehicles and launchers, in other words, those not in combat readiness condition, but used for training or testing and not armed with warheads (START-1 and START-2 covered nuclear warheads placed on deployed strategic delivery vehicles). New START also applies to all newly built strategic offensive weapons.

Each of the parties has the right to independently determine the composition and structure of its strategic offensive weapons within the total limits established under the Treaty (it can increase their number strictly within the framework of the terms of the agreement). New START bans the deployment of strategic offensive weapons outside the national territory.

Two provisions of the document refer to the anti-ballistic missile defense (ABM): one concerns the relationship between strategic offensive weapons (nuclear weapons) and strategic defensive weapons (anti-missile defense systems), and the other - a ban on the conversion of ICBM and SLBM launchers into missile defense interceptor launchers, also as well as their reverse conversion. There are no restrictions on missile defenses. Stockpiled nuclear warheads remain uncounted. Technically, this part of the nuclear arsenal can be deployed fairly quickly, should either party ceases to comply with the Treaty.

Validity

The document was signed for ten years (until February 2021) with the possibility of extension for a period of no more than five years. It includes an exit provision.

Republican President Donald Trump, who came to power in the United States in 2017, called New START a "one-sided deal." He argued that it was more beneficial to Moscow than to Washington. His administration insisted on drafting a new treaty involving China, or on extending the agreement, but on the condition that it would include the latest types of strategic and tactical nuclear weapons, as well as additional verification mechanisms. Russia offered to prolong the document without any pre-conditions.

After the Joe Biden-led Democrat administration took over in 2021, the Treaty was extended without preconditions. On January 26, 2021, Russia and the United States exchanged notes on reaching an agreement on its extension for five years (until February 5, 2026), and on February 3, notes on the completion of internal procedures necessary for its extension.

Compliance

At the time the document came into force in 2011 the United States had 882 deployed delivery vehicles, including ICBMs, SLBMs and HBs, 1,800 warheads and 1,124 deployed and non-deployed launchers; Russia had 521 deployed delivery vehicles, 1,537 warheads and 865 launchers (hereinafter, the US Department of State data). The United States achieved the benchmarks in September 2017 and Russia fulfilled its obligations to reduce strategic offensive arms by February 5, 2018.

As of September 1, 2022, Russia had 540 deployed nuclear weapons delivery vehicles, 1,549 nuclear warheads and 759 deployed and non-deployed launchers. The United States has 659 delivery vehicles, 1,420 warheads and 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers. Experts believe that a rough parity between the strategic nuclear forces of Russia and the United States remains.

Bilateral consultative commission, data exchanges, inspections

To promote the implementation of the Treaty’s objectives and provisions a bilateral consultative commission was established, within which working groups can be formed to discuss various problems. Meetings are convened whenever necessary at the request of either party. The agenda of such meetings and its activities is not made public as a rule.

The exchange of telemetric information on missile launches is carried out by agreement and on a parity basis for no more than 5 launches per year. Twice a year - in March and September - the parties exchange information on the number of warheads and delivery vehicles.

Under New START coordinated on-site checks of strategic weapons are to be carried out at ICBM bases, submarine bases and air bases. The agreement provides for 18 annual inspections of two types. Type one inspections are carried out at the sites of deployed strategic offensive weapons - bases of land-based ICBMs, bases for the deployment of SSBNs (nuclear-powered submarines armed with ICBMs) and strategic aviation air bases. Type two inspections take place at the missiles’ loading, repair, and storage sites. A protocol to the agreement specifies that each party may conduct up to ten type one inspections and eight type two inspections.

Over the period the Treaty has been in effect the parties held 328 inspections and 19 meetings of the consultative commission, and exchanged 25,311 notifications (according to data available as of February 1, 2023).

New START’s current status

On August 8, 2022, Russia notified the United States it was temporarily closing its facilities to New START inspections. The Russian Foreign Ministry explained it was a forced decision taken against the backdrop of anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the West after the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. A ban on the passage of Russian aircraft carrying inspectors, visa problems during transit, and difficulties with making payments for services in fact stripped Russia of the slightest chance to carry out inspections on US territory and created "unilateral advantages for the US side."

The first meeting of the consultative commission following the start of the special military operation was to be held in Cairo on November 29 - December 6, 2022. However, one day before the meeting, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it was postponed. Later, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that Russia could not discuss New START with the United States as long as it was supplying weapons to Ukraine.