In a speech strongly hostile to the West, Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday February 21 the suspension of Russia’s participation in the New Start agreement on nuclear disarmament, without however withdrawing entirely from it.
“This treaty prevents us from carrying out full-fledged inspections, and our repeated requests to inspect this or that facility remain unanswered or are rejected on formal grounds. And we can’t really inspect anything on the other side (…), justified the Russian president. I feel compelled to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty. I repeat, not by withdrawing from the treaty but precisely by suspending its participation. And before resuming discussions on this subject, we must understand what the countries of the Atlantic Alliance, such as France and the United Kingdom, want. »
Signed in 2010, the New Start treaty, the last bilateral agreement of its kind linking the Russian and American powers, limits the arsenals of the two countries to a maximum of 1,550 warheads deployed on either side, a reduction of nearly 30%. compared to the previous limit set in 2002. Russia had already announced at the beginning of August that it was suspending American inspections of its military sites planned under the agreement, ensuring that it was acting in response to American obstacles to Russian inspections in the United States. United.
“We are given ultimatums”
Vladimir Putin has, among other things, accused the United States of having helped Ukraine to modernize drones to send them to strategic targets, a reference to the recent explosions at the Engels strategic bomber base, some 500 kilometers away. from the Ukrainian border.
In the wake of Mr. Putin’s speech, Russian diplomacy summoned the American ambassador to Moscow to deliver a memo demanding that the United States withdraw NATO “soldiers and equipment” from Ukraine, in reference to the military aid that Kiev receives from the West.
The Russian president also called on the Defense Ministry and the federal atomic energy agency Rosatom to stand “ready for nuclear weapons testing” if the United States conducts any first.
He further called it a “theater of the absurd” that NATO demanded that Russia implement New Start and allow Russian “access to military nuclear site inspections”. “Through the NATO representatives, we are given ultimatums: ‘You, Russia, do everything we agreed on, including New Start, and we will do whatever you want. seems to us,'” the Kremlin ruler charged.
Mr. Putin suggested that NATO join New Start to make this treaty fair, “because within NATO the United States is not the only nuclear power.” “France and Britain also have nuclear arsenals, they are perfecting them, modernizing them and they are directed against us,” he added.
Before this announcement, the Kremlin had accused the United States on February 1 of having “destroyed the legal framework” of the New Start treaty, the day after Washington accused Moscow of “non-compliance” with its obligations.
A “disappointing and irresponsible” decision for Washington
Shortly after the Russian president’s speech, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he regretted Moscow’s decision on Tuesday. “I call on Russia to reconsider its position,” he reacted during a press conference in Brussels. “More nuclear weapons and fewer arms controls make the world more dangerous,” he continued.
“Russia’s announcement (…) is further proof that it is only demolishing the security system that was built after the end of the Cold War”, added Josep Borrell, head of the EU diplomacy.
The head of the American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, described the Russian decision as “very disappointing and irresponsible”. “But, of course, we remain ready to discuss the limitation of strategic arms at any time with Russia,” he nevertheless told a few reporters at the US Embassy in Athens.