Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the collapse of the last major US-Russia nuclear arms agreement could trigger a new arms race, amid reports of turmoil within Russia’s top military leadership and potential purges of senior officers. On Monday, Putin announced that Russia will continue to uphold nuclear arms restrictions for an additional year, urging the United States to reciprocate. He cautioned that abandoning the 2010 treaty would be destabilizing and could accelerate nuclear proliferation.
Putin Invokes New START Treaty
To avoid provoking a further strategic arms race and to ensure an acceptable level of predictability and restraint, Putin said it is justified to try to maintain the status quo established by the New START Treaty during the current, rather turbulent period.
The Russian president stressed Moscow’s readiness to observe the treaty’s core restrictions until one year beyond its scheduled expiration on February 5, 2026. He added that this measure will only be viable if the United States acts in a similar manner and does not take steps that undermine or disrupt the existing balance of deterrence potentials.
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What is The New START Treaty?
Signed by then-US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the New START Treaty limits each country to a maximum of 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement also included comprehensive on-site inspections to verify compliance.
However, inspections were suspended in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and have not resumed. In February 2023, Putin halted Russia’s participation in the treaty, citing the inability to permit US inspections while Washington and NATO openly aimed to see Russia defeated in its war in Ukraine. Despite this, Moscow affirmed it would continue to honor the treaty’s nuclear limits and provide notifications of ballistic missile test launches.
Previous Nuclear Treaties and Ongoing US-Russia Discussions
Another nuclear arms agreement, the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, was terminated in 2019. This pact had banned land-based missiles with ranges between 310-3,400 miles (500-5,500 km).
US President Donald Trump noted during a July interview that the expiration of New START presents a major global risk, saying that it is a big problem for the world when nuclear restrictions are removed. Trump also confirmed that nuclear weapons were discussed during his August summit with Putin in Alaska.
Putin instructed Russian agencies to closely monitor US activities, particularly regarding strategic offensive weapons and preparations for the potential deployment of missile interceptors in space.
He said that the practical implementation of such destabilizing actions could undermine Russia’s efforts to maintain the status quo in the strategic offensive arms sphere.
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
