'To avoid arms race': Putin offers to extend nuclear arms limits for one year, urges US to follow

Putin says Russia will stick to nuclear arms limits for 1 more year after treaty with US expires

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow intends to continue observing nuclear arms limits for an additional year under the New START Treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control agreement with the United States, which expires in February. He called on Washington to reciprocate.

Addressing Russia’s Security Council, Putin warned that allowing the treaty to lapse could destabilize global security and spark a new nuclear arms race.

“Russia is prepared to continue adhering to the central numerical limits under the New START Treaty for one year after February 5, 2026,” Reuters quoted Putin as saying.

“To avoid provoking a further strategic arms race and to ensure an acceptable level of predictability and restraint, we believe it is justified to try to maintain the status quo established by the New START Treaty during the current, rather turbulent period,” Putin said in televised remarks.

Putin emphasized that Russia’s willingness to extend compliance depends on the United States acting similarly and not taking steps that would disrupt the balance of nuclear forces.

Signed in 2010 by then-US President Barack Obama and then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the New START Treaty caps each country at 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. It also permits on-site inspections, which have been suspended since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Although Russia officially froze its participation in the treaty in 2023, it has continued to abide by its limits voluntarily.

Tensions between Moscow and Washington have intensified in recent years, particularly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. After the invasion, Putin raised the alert level of Russia’s nuclear forces and later signed a decree lowering the threshold for nuclear weapon use.

Despite some easing of tensions since US President Donald Trump took office earlier this year, no significant negotiations on nuclear arms control have taken place.