Kremlin proposes arms treaty extension

MOSCOW— Russia on Friday proposed extending a soon-to-expire nuclear arms treaty for one year without any changes, a move seen in Washington as a tactic to delay action on the treaty until after the U.S. presidential election.

The Trump administration swiftly dismissed Moscow’s proposal as a “non-starter.”

The Russian offer came just two days after the Kremlin rejected as “nonsense” what the Trump administration hailed as a tentative deal to salvage the pact, the New START treaty, the last remaining major arms control pact between the two biggest nuclear powers.

National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien repeated the administration’s proposal to extend New START for one year, “in exchange for Russia and the United States capping all nuclear warheads during that period.”