Russia Moscow concerned about expiring nuclear weapons treaty
The Kremlin has renewed its offer to Washington to adhere to the provisions of the expiring New Start nuclear disarmament treaty for another year.
03.02.2026, 13:57
SDA
President Vladimir Putin's proposal is still on the table, but so far there has been no response from the USA, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.
Time is pressing - "literally in a few days, the world will probably be in a more dangerous situation than it was before," said Peskov, referring to the treaty that expires on February 5.
The original launch treaties signed between the USA and the Soviet Union provided for a reduction in strategic nuclear missiles and nuclear warheads. The successor treaty, New Start, concluded in 2010, limits the number of warheads to 1,550 each and the number of launchers to 800.
One year after Putin started the war in Ukraine, he suspended Russia's participation in the New Start treaty in 2023 - on the grounds that Russian inspectors would no longer be able to visit the US weapons arsenals. At the same time, the Russian leadership assured that it would continue to adhere to the upper limit on nuclear weapons.
Washington had also repeatedly called for China's participation in future nuclear disarmament treaties. Peskov has now once again rejected this. China's nuclear weapons potential cannot be compared with that of Russia and the USA, so it is negligible.
"At the same time, when discussing the future system of strategic stability, we cannot ignore the nuclear potential of the US allies in Europe, specifically the UK and France." These must be taken into account in talks on extending the treaty, Peskov repeated one of Putin's demands.
