Former Russian President says decision to leave Nuclear Treaty was long over due

Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • U.S.-Russian tensions escalate with nuclear rhetoric from Moscow
  • Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president, said the decision to leave the treaty was “overdue,” warning the U.S. that Russia would reserve the right to use its nuclear arsenal — even if it means world war.
  • “If the United States wants to defeat Russia, then we have the right to defend ourselves with any weapons, including nuclear weapons,” he said on his Telegram channel Wednesday.

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Putin announces end to U.S. Nuclear Treaty

Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • Putin Suspends U.S. Nuclear Treaty, Tells Russians, West ‘Wants to Finish Us Forever’
  • Putin used his speech to announce an end to the New START agreement, a treaty passed under Obama.
  • “I am forced to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty,” he declared, accusing the United States and the greater West of attempting to eliminate the existence of Russia as a whole.
  • New START took effect in February 2011 and, under a proposal by President Joe Biden eagerly embraced in Moscow, extended through 2026. The deal limits the number of nuclear weapons both sides can deploy and forced the U.S. and Russia to, at least on paper, maintain an equal number of strategic nuclear weapons. As described by the State Department, the treaty requires limits of:
    • 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments;
    • 1,550 nuclear warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs, and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments (each such heavy bomber is counted as one warhead toward this limit);
    • 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.
  • President Donald Trump was a stern critic of the New START agreement, reportedly raising the issue in his first call with Putin as president in 2017 and publicly demanding a new agreement that also includes China.

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Putin proposes Russia, U.S. extend New START arms control treaty for one year

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed on Friday that Russia and the United States extend their New START arms control treaty that expires in February for at least a year without imposing any conditions.

The New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) accord, signed in 2010, limits the numbers of strategic nuclear warheads, missiles and bombers that Russia and the United States can deploy.

A failure to extend the pact would remove all constraints on U.S. and Russian deployments of strategic nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, fueling a post-Cold War arms race and tensions between Moscow and Washington.

Putin, speaking at a meeting by video link with Russia’s Security Council that was broadcast on state television, said the treaty had worked effectively until now and it would be “extremely sad” if it were to stop working.

“In this regard, I propose… extending the current treaty without any conditions for at least a year so that meaningful negotiations can be conducted on all the parameters of the problems…” he said.

Russia and the United States, which has called for China to be included in the arms control treaty, have appeared at odds over extending the pact despite several months of talks.

On Wednesday, Moscow denied U.S. assertions that the two sides had reached an agreement in principle.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Vladimir Soldatkin; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Jon Boyle and Tomasz Janowski)

Russia, U.S. remain divided over extending last nuclear arms pact

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Russia and the United States on Wednesday remained at odds over extending the last major arms control pact between the world’s largest nuclear weapons powers, with Moscow denying U.S. assertions of an agreement in principle.

The New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) accord, signed in 2010, limits the numbers of strategic nuclear warheads, missiles and bombers that Russia and the United States can deploy. It expires in February.

A failure to extend the pact would remove all constraints on U.S. and Russian deployments of strategic nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, fueling a post-Cold War arms race and tensions between Moscow and Washington.

U.S. officials have indicated that an agreement to extend it has been reached in principle.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that no deal had yet been reached despite what the Kremlin hoped was a joint understanding that the pact did need to be extended.

“As for the understanding for the need to extent the START treaty, we hope we are on the same track in this regard,” Peskov said on a conference call with reporters. “We understand that it needs to be extended, that this is in the interest of our two countries and the strategic security of the whole world.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to comment when asked to elaborate on the agreement in principle that the top U.S. arms control negotiator, Marshall Billingslea, on Tuesday said had been reached “at the highest levels.”

“We would welcome the opportunity to complete an agreement based on understandings that were achieved over the last couple of weeks about what that range of possibilities look like for an extension of New START,” Pompeo told a State Department news conference.

He said the United States would continue the talks on the treaty, which can be extended for up to five years with the agreement of both presidents.

“I am hopeful that the Russians will find a way to agree to an outcome that frankly I think is in their best interest and in our best interest,” he said.

Pompeo reiterated a call for China to join the United States and Russia in talks on a trilateral nuclear arms control accord. China, whose nuclear arsenal is much smaller than the U.S. and Russian stockpiles, repeatedly has rejected the proposal.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier on Wednesday Moscow did not see prospects for extending the new START arms control treaty with Washington but planned to continue talks nonetheless.

New START is a successor to the original agreement signed in 1991 between the then-Soviet Union and the United States.

Arms deals between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, and their successors George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, underscored growing trust between the superpowers and contributed to ending the Cold War.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber Anton Kolodyazhnyy in Moscow and Jonathan Landay and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington.; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Marguerita Choy)