CNN
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Russia is violating a key nuclear arms control agreement with the United States and continues to deny inspections of its nuclear facilities, a State Department spokesman said on Tuesday.
“Russia has not fulfilled its obligations under the New START Treaty to facilitate inspection activities on its territory. Russia’s refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the Treaty and threatens the US-Russia nuclear arsenal Feasibility of control,” the spokesman said in a statement.
“Russia also failed to comply with its obligations under the New START treaty, and did not convene a meeting of the bilateral consultative committee in accordance with the timetable stipulated in the treaty,” the spokesman added.
The U.S. announcement could heighten tensions between the two countries as Moscow continues to wage war on Ukraine. The rattling of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear saber during the war has alarmed the United States and its allies.
In December, Putin warned of a “growing threat” of nuclear war, and this month Dmitry Medvedev, vice-chairman of Russia’s Security Council, threatened that Russia’s loss of the war could “trigger a nuclear war”.
“Nuclear powers will not lose a major conflict on which their fate depends,” Medvedev wrote in a Telegram post. “This should be obvious to anyone. Even to Western politicians who have retained at least some intelligence is also like this.”
The U.S. has seen no evidence that Putin has decided to take the drastic step of using nuclear weapons, although U.S. intelligence assessments in November indicated that Russian military officials discussed under what circumstances Russia would use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, officials told CNN. step.
Under the new START treaty – the only agreement governing the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals – Washington and Moscow are allowed to conduct inspections of each other’s weapons bases, but inspections have been halted since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic .
A meeting of a bilateral consultative committee on the treaty, which was scheduled to take place in Egypt in late November, was abruptly canceled. The United States blamed Russia for the delay, with a State Department spokesman calling the decision “unilateral” by Russia.
The treaty limits the number of deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons that the United States and Russia can possess. It was last extended for five years in early 2021, meaning the two sides will soon need to start negotiating another arms control agreement.
The State Department said Russia could return to full compliance if it “allows inspection activities on its territory, as it has done for years under the New START treaty” and schedules a committee meeting.
“Russia has a clear path to return to full compliance. All Russia needs to do is allow inspections on its territory, as it has done for years under the New START treaty, and meet at bilateral consultative committee meetings ,” the spokesman said. “There is nothing stopping Russian inspectors from going to the United States to conduct inspections.”
According to the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, Russia has about 5,977 nuclear warheads, 1,588 of which are deployed. The United States has 5,550 nuclear warheads, including 3,800 in active service, according to the center.
On Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the last element of a bilateral nuclear arms control treaty with the United States could expire in three years without any replacement.
Asked whether Moscow could envisage no nuclear arms control agreement between the two countries when the 2011 extension of the New START treaty ends after 2026, Ryabkov told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on Monday: ” It’s a very plausible idea.”