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Russia-US ties likely to get worse despite new agreements, expert says

There is little reason to expect an overall improvement in US-Russian relations, the expert said

© Anton Novoderzhkin/TASS

WASHINGTON, January 27. /TASS/. Political tensions in the Russian-US relations are likely to get worse in the foreseeable future despite the recent bilateral agreements, said US political expert Gary Samore, who served as White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Barack Obama’s administration in 2009-2013.

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Putin, Biden express satisfaction over agreement to extend New START — Kremlin

"Congratulations to Presidents Biden and Putin for agreeing to extend New START for five years without conditions," Samore told TASS. "During the next five years, the two sides will undoubtedly engage in complex and difficult negotiations on a new bilateral treaty to strengthen strategic stability and reduce the risk of nuclear war."

"Beyond this overriding common interest, however, there is little reason to expect an overall improvement in US-Russian relations," the expert continued.

"Indeed, political tensions between Moscow and Washington are likely to get even worse before they get better," he added.

The Russian and US presidents, Vladimir Putin and Joseph Biden, expressed satisfaction following the exchange of notes on the extension of the New START Treaty, the Kremlin press service said on Tuesday after their telephone conversation. According to the Kremlin, "the sides will finalize, within days, procedures needed to ensure further functioning of this major international mechanism of reciprocal limitation of nuclear missile arsenals."

The Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the New START Treaty) was signed in 2010 and entered into force on February 5, 2011. The document stipulates that seven years after its entry into effect each party should have no more than a total of 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and strategic bombers, as well as no more than 1,550 warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs and strategic bombers, and a total of 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers and strategic bombers. The New START Treaty will remain in force for 10 years, until 2021, unless it is replaced before that date by a subsequent agreement on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms. It can also be extended for no longer than 5 years (that is, until 2026) upon the parties’ mutual consent.

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