Russian parliament approves suspension of New START treaty

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The Russian parliament approved on Wednesday a bill on the suspension of Moscow’s participation in the New START nuclear treaty.

Both chambers of the Russian parliament, the State Duma and the Council of Federation, unanimously voted in favor of suspending the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty "until the Russian president makes a decision about its resumption."

According to the bill, once adopted, it will be considered effective starting from the moment of its publication on the official government portal.

In a separate statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said Moscow will continue to comply with the New START's restrictions on the number of nuclear warheads carriers, and will continue the exchange of notifications about missile launches.

Under the treaty, the sides may request information about up to five launches of missiles per year, should exchange information on the number of warheads and carriers twice a year -- in March and September -- and have the right to carry out up to 18 inspections per year.

The treaty limits the number of deployed missiles and bombers to 700, deployed warheads, including multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles and bombers, to 1,550, and deployed and non-deployed launchers -- missile tubes and bombers -- to 800.

Addressing the Russian parliament on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow will suspend its participation in the treaty due to the US involvement in the conflict in Ukraine -- there are risks Washington will transfer to Kyiv intelligence for strikes on Russia's strategic military facilities, obtained during inspections, provided by the treaty.

He also said the New START treaty was signed in a fundamentally different political reality and no longer reflects the situation.

Signed in 2010 and extended in 2021 for another five years, the New START treaty aims to control and reduce strategic nuclear forces used by the US and Russia.