Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty signed with the United States.
He suspended the deal in a speech to parliament on Tuesday, two days before the anniversary of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“I am compelled to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the Strategic Nuclear Weapons Treaty,” he told lawmakers.
In 2010, in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, the bilateral strategic nuclear weapons agreement named “The New Start” was signed by Russia and the United States, the world’s two top nuclear weapons holders. The deal was extended for another five years last year after US President Joe Biden took office.
The agreement curbs the US and Russia’s deployment of strategic nuclear warheads, land- and submarine-based missiles, and nuclear-capable aircraft.
Russia currently has a large stockpile of nuclear weapons. Experts have said that the country has about 6,000 warheads.
According to the New Start Treaty, neither country could deploy more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads.
Russia and the United States jointly possess about 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads; Which is enough to destroy this world many times over.
In a speech to the parliament, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia will continue the year-long war in Ukraine. He also alleged that Nato, the US-led Western military alliance, fueled the conflict in the mistaken belief that Moscow could be defeated in a global war.
He says Russia did everything possible to avoid war. But Western-backed Ukraine planned an invasion of Russian-held Crimea. In 2014, Russia occupied this island territory of Ukraine by carrying out a military operation.
He said, it is impossible to defeat Russia. Russia will never succumb to Western attempts to divide its society.
