Putin halts key nuclear treaty
Tensions build over the war in Ukraine
Tensions between the United States and the Kremlin ratcheted up Tuesday ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s war in Ukraine as Vladimir Putin vowed to pull Russia back from a key nuclear treaty and President Joe Biden reaffirmed the U.S. and its allies won’t back down.
Putin’s move came on the heels of Biden’s surprise and historic visit to Kyiv on Monday. In a nearly two-hour speech to both houses of the Russian Parliament, Putin said he was suspending Moscow’s participation in New START, a strategic nuclear arms reduction treaty between the U.S. and Russia. He said he was taking action because of the U.S. and NATO, without specifying more. “In this regard, I am forced to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the strategic offensive arms treaty.”
Less than 800 miles away, Biden followed with his own speech in Warsaw. He said Putin thought Ukraine would “roll over” when he invaded with tanks a year ago, but “he was wrong.” Biden did not directly address Putin’s pledge on the nuclear treaty.
New START is the last remaining nuclear arms reduction deal between the U.S. and Russia. It was signed in 2010 and extended for five years in 2021. It limits each side to 1,550 longrange nuclear warheads.
“Over the last (few) years Russia has violated and walked away from key arms control agreements. With today’s decision on New START the whole arms control architecture has been dismantled,” NATO SecretaryGeneral Jens Stoltenberg said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described Putin’s move as “deeply unfortunate and irresponsible. We’ll be watching carefully to see what Russia actually does.”
As he has done many times before, Putin blamed the West for provoking the war, accusing the U.S. and its European allies of wanting to acquire “limitless power.” He said Ukraine’s allies were “playing a dirty game,” that NATO members were openly talking about supplying Ukraine with nuclear weapons – they aren’t – and that the planet was “dotted” with U.S. military bases.
Putin claimed that Western economic sanctions on Russia were not working, that Russian farmers just had a “record” grain harvest – Russia has stolen Ukraine’s grain over the past year – and that he plans to bolster Russia’s ties to India, Iran and other countries in the Middle East.
Putin ruled out Russia making a first nuclear strike in Ukraine and said Russia would conduct nuclear tests only if the United States did so first.