“Russia violated the terms of START-3 by not allowing US inspectors to enter its territory,” the US State Department said in a statement. Under the terms of the agreement, the countries commit to providing access to facilities subject to treaty measures to further reduce and limit strategic offensive arms.
START-3 is the last of the existing agreements between Russia and the United States, limiting the size of nuclear arsenals. It was signed in 2010 and entered into force a year later. In 2021, the contract was extended for five years.
According to the agreement, the number of nuclear warheads on each side should not exceed 1,550. A limit is also set for delivery vehicles – no more than 700 missiles (land and sea) and strategic bombers.
“Some new Russian missile systems, including the Poseidon torpedo or the Avangard missile, with its virtually unlimited range, do not fall into these categories. And the United States wanted to include these weapons in the new treaty,” said Richard Weitz. , director of the Center for Military-Political Analysis at the Hudson Institute, at the media Russian Service.
Russia has not objected to the inclusion of Avangard hypersonic systems in the START-3 provisions and has not previously refused to comply with other parameters of the agreement. But on January 31, it became known that Moscow had blocked US inspectors’ access to Russian nuclear facilities, contrary to the terms of START-3.
The US State Department said Russia was in violation of the terms of the agreement. In Moscow, through the mouth of the deputy head of the Duma’s Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, they replied that the United States itself violates the treaty in terms of “indivisibility of security” and that Russia in START-3 “don’t forcibly restrain anyone.”
“The United States is now very concerned about the buildup of nuclear weapons in China, and now it may become necessary to deter Russia as well,” Thomas McDonald, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in an interview with media. – On this occasion, there is already some pressure on the White House, it is required to increase its nuclear arsenal. And if no restrictions are prescribed internationally – including within the framework of the START-3 treaty – the hands of the supporters of the constitution of nuclear arsenals in the United States will have a free hand. And America will be drawn into a new arms race.
There are no further binding bilateral agreements. Until 2019, there was still the treaty on the elimination of intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF), but the United States withdrew from the treaty because China refused to join it, as has insisted the head of the White House at the time, Donald Trump.
However, Russia’s actions today should not be seen as retaliation against the US withdrawal from the INF treaty or simply as a new threat, said Hans Christensen, director of the Informational Nuclear Project at the Federation of American Scientists. According to him, Moscow is trying to manipulate Washington in the issue of support for Ukraine.
“It looks like blackmail,” Christensen said in an interview with Russia’s media service. – It’s as if Russia is saying to the United States: “Since you support Ukraine, we will think about the rigor of fulfilling all the conditions of START-3.” Please note that Russia makes no statement regarding its withdrawal from START-3 or its intention to accumulate a nuclear arsenal beyond the limits stipulated in the agreement. In addition, he declares his attachment to this treaty and his intention to continue to respect the restrictions. The violations identified by the United States relate precisely to the procedural aspect of the matter – the admission of inspectors. But they do not concern the treaty itself.
The blocking of Russian nuclear facilities for US inspections became known five days after Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov declared that “the United States understands what de-escalation measures are expected of them”. But US support for Ukraine and nuclear dialogue with Russia, experts say, are two parallel lines of foreign policy. And the Biden administration has no intention of giving up on any of them.
