Russia remains committed to its last remaining nuclear arms control agreement with the United States, despite claims it is not in compliance with the treaty, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington said. said Wednesday, as fears of a nuclear confrontation hang over the war in Ukraine.
The US State Department on Tuesday accused Russia of non-compliance with New START, suspending inspections and canceling talks.
He did not accuse his Cold War rival of increasing the number of nuclear warheads beyond agreed limits.
In response to the accusations, Ambassador Anatoly Antonov instead accused Washington of worsening the terms of START III, saying that Moscow was responding to a “hybrid war unleashed by the West against our country.”
“We have warned that arms control cannot be isolated from geopolitical realities,” the Russian diplomat said in a comment posted on the Russian embassy’s Facebook page.
At the same time, Antonov said that “we intend to continue to comply with the central framework of the agreement.”
The Kremlin said later on Wednesday that it believed “that the continuation of this treaty is very important.”
“On the other hand, we see that the United States has actually destroyed the legal framework in the field of arms control and security,” This was announced to journalists by the official representative of the Kremlin Dmitry Peskov.
New START, the only remaining arms reduction treaty between the world’s two largest nuclear powers, places a limit on both countries’ strategic nuclear arsenals. It will be valid until 2026, after which it can be extended again.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said last week that New START talks were effectively “frozen” even before Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.
He accused Washington of refusing at the end of 2021 to accept Russia’s demands for security guarantees, which included provisions to end military cooperation with former Soviet countries and to permanently block Ukraine’s NATO membership.
“We can say that as a result of Washington’s actions, arms control has become a hostage to the general deep degradation of our bilateral relations,” Ryabkov told the Kommersant business newspaper.
Diplomacy between the two powers has been reduced to a minimum over the past year as the US has spearheaded a drive to economically punish Russia for its war against Ukraine and arm Kyiv with billions of dollars worth of weapons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, rekindling Cold War-era fears of an apocalyptic war.
Russia has postponed indefinitely the START-3 talks, which were supposed to start on November 29 in Cairo, accusing the US of “toxicity and hostility.”
The AFP agency provided the report.
