Russia temporarily closed inspections under the strategic weapons treaty

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that US sanctions and their allies created many obstacles for the work of Russian inspectors under the START treaty,while American inspectors do not experience any difficultiesView of the Russian Foreign Ministry building

RUSSIA temporarily withdrew from inspection activities under the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty (START) its facilities subject to inspections. This is stated in the statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry, published on the agency's website.

“This exemption also applies to venues where screenings stipulated by the contract can be held,” the Foreign Ministry said.

The Foreign Ministry stressed that this is a forced measure, since the United States seeks to “immediately achieve a restart of inspection activities on conditions that do not take into account existing realities, create unilateral advantages for the United States and actually deprive the Russian Federation of the right to conduct inspections on American territory.”

As an example, the statement cites the situation with air traffic. Between Russia and the United States, it has been stopped, but the airspace of states that are allies and partners of the United States is closed to Russian aircraft delivering Russian inspection teams.

The United States called the "goodwill of Moscow" necessary for the negotiations on START-3 Politics

“At the same time, there are no similar obstacles to the arrival of American inspectors in Russia,” the Foreign Ministry stressed. Another obstacle is the tightening of the visa regime in transit countries along the possible routes of inspectors. “American inspectors and flight crew members do not experience such difficulties,” they emphasized on Smolenskaya Square.

The Russian Foreign Ministry suggested discussing the resumption of inspections "from the most realistic positions." Another argument is the increase in the incidence of covid in the United States, which could jeopardize the HEALTH of Russian inspectors.

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“We believe that in the current circumstances, the parties should abandon deliberately counterproductive attempts to artificially speed up the resumption of START inspection activities and focus on a thorough study of all existing problems in this area,” the statement says.

Biden announced his readiness to discuss with Russia an agreement to replace START-3 Politics

At the same time, the Foreign Ministry assured that the measures taken are temporary, Russia is committed to complying with all the provisions of the agreement and is ready to resume inspections after "resolving existing problematic issues."

Russia and the United States signed the START-3 treaty in 2010, the document was signed by Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev. The term of the agreement was ten years and provided for the reduction by the parties of deployed nuclear warheads to 1,500 units, and intercontinental ballistic missiles, ballistic missiles of submarines and strategic missile-carrying bombers to 700. The agreement expired on February 5, 2021.

But Donald Trump , who became President of the United States in 2017, considered the treaty unprofitable for Washington and opposed its extension. In his opinion, CHINA should have been included in the limitation of strategic offensive weapons . However, after Joe Biden came to power in the United States, the treaty was extended until February 5, 2026.

On August 1, 2022, Biden said that the United States was ready to discuss with Russia an arms control system that would replace START-3, which expires in 2026. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded by saying that Moscow had repeatedly advocated negotiations with the United States on the extension of START.

Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev responded to Biden's proposal with a remark with the words "Do we need it?".