Biden, Putin agree to extension of arms treaty
WASHINGTON — President Biden and President Vladimir Putin of Russia avoided a renewed arms race Tuesday when they formally agreed to extend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between their countries. But White House officials said Biden also confronted the Kremlin leader over the poisoning of an opposition activist and a hacking of government and private computer networks in the United States.
It was the first call between the leaders of the world’s two largest nuclear powers since Biden’s inauguration. But it was being watched as much for its tone as its substance: Biden vowed during the transition to make Russia “pay a price” for the hacking, and his administration, in its opening hours, demanded the release of Alexei Navalny, whose arrest Jan. 17 prompted protests last weekend across Russia that resulted in more than 3,000 arrests.
The call was, in essence, the opening act of what promises to be a deeply adversarial relationship between the two leaders, and most likely the sharpest turn in American foreign policy since former President Donald Trump left office one week ago.
The call came at the request of the Russians as the New START agreement, which limited the size of the two countries’ strategic nuclear arsenals, expires Feb. 5.
On Monday night, the countries exchanged diplomatic notes to extend the treaty for five years, the maximum allowed in its text. Trump had initially declared that he would not extend it unless China also joined.
A lastminute effort by the Trump administration to negotiate an improvement to the treaty also failed; by that time, Putin appeared to be betting that Biden would win, and would want to make good on his promise to renew the Obamaera treaty.
The treaty limits nuclear arsenals to 1,550 strategic warheads. The fiveyear extension was built into the original text, if both countries agreed, so it does not need further approval by the Senate.
The extension avoids a costly arms race — and Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, argued that if the country was going to confront Russia for its malign activities, it was better to do so with both sides under nuclear constraints.
Biden also raised with Putin the highly sophisticated hacking of U.S. government and private networks, in which Russian hackers got access to 18,000 networks.
American intelligence assessments of Russia placing bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan was also raised by Biden, as well as what White House officials said was “interference in the 2020 United States election.”