Ryabkov: in the US, the START treaty is turning into a tool for settling political scores

In the US, the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty (START) is turning into a tool for settling political scores. About this in an interview with the magazine “International Affairs” declared Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, commenting on the initiative of a group of senators to withdraw the United States from the treaty.

“When I see reports that a group of parliamentarians on Capitol Hill is proposing an initiative to withdraw the United States from START, I conclude that there this treaty is increasingly turning into a certain tool for settling political scores with opponents,” Ryabkov said.

The Deputy Minister specified that Russia will continue to comply with the central provisions of the treaty, which relate to the number of offensive weapons, carriers and warheads, despite the suspension of participation in the START Treaty. Ryabkov believes that “the agreement has not sunk into oblivion,” but the entire operational component of it has been frozen.

May 18 Cluster of Republican Senators contributed to the US Congress a bill on the withdrawal of the country from START. In their opinion, the decision of the administration of US President Joe Biden to extend the treaty with Russia was a mistake and fettered the United States, and also “did not provide America and its allies with security.”

The START Treaty was signed in 2010 by Russian and US Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama. The document spoke about the reduction of strategic nuclear forces to the level of 700 deployed and a total of 800 deployed and non-deployed strategic delivery vehicles. The treaty provided for detailed inspections at the sites of production and deployment of carriers of strategic nuclear weapons and the exchange of telemetry data during testing of new types of missiles.

In February 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in his message that Moscow had decided to suspend the New START. He motivated this decision by saying that under the conditions of a special military operation, US inspections of Russian enterprises and other facilities could be used to the detriment of Russia’s interests.