Russia suspends participation in New Start treaty; Putin vows to conduct nuclear tests if US does it

Russia President Vladimir Putin (File Image: Reuters)

Russia is suspending its participation in 'New Start' treaty, the strategic arms pact with the United States that restricts both the countries on increasing their nuclear arsenal, as per an announcement made by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 21.

Putin, while delivering the state-of-the-nation address to the country's lawmakers in Moscow, vowed to conduct nuclear tests if Washington does so.

"I am forced to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the strategic offensive arms treaty," he said.

"If the United States conducts nuclear tests, Russia will also do it," Putin added. His remarks comes a day after US President Joe Biden paid a surprise visit to Kyiv, and reiterated the West's support for the Ukrainian government.

New Start was inked between Russia and United States in 2010, and received an extension in 2021. It was expected to last at least 2026 as per the terms of extension agreed two by the both sides. The pact was aimed at halving the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers and limits the use of missiles that can carry atomic weapons, in a bid to de-escalate the tensions that revolves around the two world powers.

Putin chides West

In his long-delayed state-of-the-nation address, Putin cast Russia — and Ukraine — as victims of Western double-dealing and said Russia, not Ukraine, was the one fighting for its very existence.

“We aren’t fighting the Ukrainian people,” Putin said in a speech days before the war’s first anniversary on Friday. Ukraine “has become hostage of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters, which have effectively occupied the country.”

The speech reiterated a litany of grievances that the Russian leader has frequently offered as justification for the widely condemned war and ignored international demands to pull back from occupied areas in Ukraine.

Observers are expected to scour it for signs of how Putin sees the conflict, which has become bogged down, and what tone he might set for the year ahead. The Russian leader vowed no military let-up in Ukrainian territories he has illegally annexed, apparently rejecting any peace overtures in a conflict that has reawakened fears of a new Cold War.

Instead, he offered his personalized version of recent history, which discounted arguments by the Ukrainian government that it needed Western help to thwart a Russian military takeover.

“Western elites aren’t trying to conceal their goals, to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ to Russia,” Putin said in the speech broadcast by all state TV channels. “They intend to transform the local conflict into a global confrontation.”

He added that Russia is prepared to respond to that as “it will be a matter of our country’s existence.”

While the Constitution mandates that the president deliver the speech annually, Putin never gave one in 2022, as his troops rolled into Ukraine and suffered repeated setbacks.

Before the speech, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian leader would focus on the “special military operation” in Ukraine, as Moscow calls it, and Russia’s economy and social issues. Many observers predicted it would also address Moscow’s fallout with the West — and Putin began with strong words for those countries.

“It’s they who have started the war. And we are using force to end it,” Putin said before an audience of lawmakers, state officials and soldiers who have fought in Ukraine.

With AP inputs