....S. president takes office.
U.S. strategy for the next year or two should become clear fairly soon. For now, it appears that Washington is not planning to deploy additional forces immediately—had that been the case, a massive media campaign with accusations against Russia would already be in motion, much as it was ahead of the collapse of the INF Treaty. The latest National Defense Authorization Act makes no mention of New START at all (perhaps Republicans are reluctant to dictate anything to Trump, while Democrats prefer not to antagonize him on an issue that has traditionally been more important to them). Moreover, increasing the loading of legacy delivery vehicles ...
... accumulated problems in this sphere are not related to recent tensions.
Media reports that express hope for positive outcomes from the ongoing Russia–U.S. dialogue often raise one issue: the looming expiration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, signed in Prague in 2010 [
1
]. During Donald Trump’s first presidential term, Russia failed to negotiate with the U.S. either a replacement agreement or an
extension
of the existing one. That extension was eventually achieved under the ...
... initiated the withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The INF crisis was preceded by years of mutual accusations, fuelled by new technological realities, the collapse of other arms control mechanisms (including the ABM Treaty), suspicions ... ... developments, and the presence of such systems in third countries, notably China. During Trump’s first term, the extension of New START was nearly derailed, only to be salvaged under the Biden administration. In 2023, amid the SMO, Russia suspended its ...
... statements on the part of lawmakers. The same is expected from Washington—in fact, even
the first detailed official commentary
on the suspension contained a call on the United States to “refrain from steps that could prevent the resumption of the New START Treaty.”
The U.S. took a negative view of the Russian initiative, accusing Russia of violating the treaty and calling for a return to compliance. Yet, those accusations would have been released anyway. That said, administration officials tried to keep a calmer tone. In the following months, the United States announced that it would stop providing Russia with relevant information on the status of its strategic ...
... strategic stability issues of the Euro-Atlantic Security Leadership Group (EASLG) took place.
The discussion focused on the following issues: prospects for strengthening strategic stability, taking into account the recent extension of Russia-the U.S. New START Treaty, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, new confidence-building measures in the nuclear field, and possible measures to limit the qualitative arms race. On the Russian side, the discussion was attended by Yevgeny Buzhinsky, RIAC Vice President,...
... come to some kind of agreement. This does not mean one side making concessions. There are many areas where negotiations and agreements no doubt meet the long-term interests of both countries.
Arms control
First, there is arms control. Extending the New START Treaty without any additional conditions meets the security interests of both sides. All that is needed for this is the political will of Moscow and Washington. Extending the Treaty would not mean that much for international security in and ...
... foreign policy. This included
renegotiating
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into the United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA),
pulling
the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, and even refusing to extend New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) or negotiate a new disarmament treaty with the Russian Federation.
On top of that, Trump’s administration and foreign policy pulled the U.S. away from the world stage. For example, the
U.S. pulled out
of ...
... with the leftovers of strategic weapons. Why don’t we count, for instance, nuclear air-launched cruise missiles? Under the New START we count each heavy bomber as one delivery vehicle and one warhead while, in fact, it can carry 6 - 20 such missiles.... ... overall START warheads ceilings. Furthermore, if we plan to go into centralized storages let us start with counting several thousand strategic warheads, cruise missiles and gravity bombs relocated there from strategic land- and sea-based missiles and heavy ...
... be no winner in a nuclear war. However, confirmation from the Kremlin and the White House in today’s far more complicated and dangerous international situation would certainly have a positive significance. Another proposal involves prolonging the New START immediately and without any pre-conditions, while simultaneously launching intensive consultations on a broad range of strategic stability issues. There are other proposals that are brought to the notice of the political leadership in both countries ...
... quick fix that shatters years-long processes, negotiations and further destabilizes the Russia-U.S. relationship and the world at large.
II. The blame game — American Accusations Do Not Outweigh Russian Concerns
Alexander Yermakov:
The Countdown for New START
In addressing US accusations of Russian violations, one needs to consider the above new context that has presented itself, together with the complex “
multi-dimensional nature of compliance-related interactions (political, technical and tactical)
” which forms the very ...
