Arms treaty end by Putin just bluster

Vladimir Putin’s threat to abandon the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty is just the Russian president being a war criminal, according to U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton.

“Obviously this is concerning. This is right out of Putin’s playbook where he is trying to threaten the West however he can because he is losing his illegal war,” Moulton told the Herald Tuesday.

The Salem congressman, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said that Putin’s morning assertion he would abandon the 2010 agreement restricting the number of deployable nuclear arms available to either country is not really a military concern — the U.S. is more than prepared to respond to his aggressions, Moulton says — but it is a troubling sign for those looking for an end to the conflict in Ukraine as it reaches its second year.

“It’s obviously troubling diplomatically,” he said. “But we’re not just dealing with a Russian leader, we’re dealing with a war criminal.”

The Kremlin, despite its year of unprovoked aggression against its democratic neighbor, has demonstrated through its failures in the field that its armed forces are not in any position to threaten the U.S. or its allies, Moulton said.

The Russian military was not even, according to the Congressman, capable of threatening perhaps the most valuable of targets, President Biden, who spent almost a day on their doorstep and outside the protections of the U.S. armed services during his recent trip to Kyiv after telling the Kremlin he would be there.

“If I would guess: Putin is more concerned for his own safety than he is confident he could take out President Biden,” Moulton said. “In other words, he knows he could try to hit Biden, but he knows we can definitely hit him.”

Biden’s trip to Kyiv and his subsequent visit to neighboring Poland on Tuesday, show the Kremlin and Russian civilians — as well as Ukrainians — that the U.S. and its allies are fully committed to the defense of Ukraine despite

Russian threats, the former Marine Corps infantry commander said.

“It shows to the Russians that the West is all in — and we’re standing up to this thuggery. As a former commander myself — an infantry platoon commander — it means a lot to get to the front and walk the ground the troops are walking. This is as close to the front lines as any U.S. President has come in a long time,” Moulton said.