Status: 08/09/2022 03:47 a.m
For the time being, Russia does not want to allow the US to continue to control its nuclear arsenal as stipulated in the contract. Under the current conditions, Russia cannot carry out the planned controls on US territory.
For the time being, Russia does not want to tolerate contractually agreed inspections of its nuclear arsenal by US inspectors again. Western sanctions hampered inspections by Russian inspectors on US territory, the State Department said.
It pointed to punitive measures against Russian flights, visa restrictions and other hurdles that prevented Russian military experts from traveling to American nuclear weapons facilities. This would give the US “unilateral advantages” if inspections on Russian territory continued. Because American inspectors would not have such problems.
Inspections Part of the New Start Agreement
The controls are laid down in the New Start Agreement, the last remaining nuclear disarmament treaty between the two countries. The pact was signed in 2010 by then-US President Barack Obama and then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
New Start imposes a limit of 1,550 total nuclear warheads on each country. Both sides are allowed 700 active carrier systems, i.e. ICBMs and bombers. The contract provides for extensive mutual on-site inspections to check compliance.
Moscow’s move comes at a time of massive tensions over Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. It is the first time that the Kremlin has put the inspections by US experts agreed in the disarmament pact on hold. President Joe Biden’s government initially did not comment on the Russian decision.