The State Department accused Russia of failing to uphold the treaty obligations of New START, the only nuclear arms agreement between the two superpowers, that was signed in 2011.
The State Department placed the blame on Moscow for blocking inspections of Russia’s nuclear stockpile and avoiding attempts to discuss the matter with American officials.
“Russia is not complying with its obligation under the New START Treaty to facilitate inspection activities on its territory,” a State Department spokesperson said Monday, adding that such a development “threatens the viability of US-Russian nuclear arms control.”
“Russia has a clear path for returning to full compliance. All Russia needs to do is allow inspection activities on its territory, just as it did for years under the New START Treaty,” the spokesman noted. “There is nothing preventing Russian inspectors from traveling to the United States and conducting inspections.”
The New START treaty permits both Russia and the United States to deploy upwards of 700 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) alongside 1,550 nuclear warheads. Additionally, either country is permitted frequent inspections of the other’s nuclear sites for verification purposes.
While the treaty was renewed in 2021 for a five year term, mutual inspections of nuclear stockpiles ceased following the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. Recent efforts by American officials to restart such visits have failed. The State Department, however, did not charge Russia with expanding its nuclear arsenal during the five-year hiatus.
PHOTOS: Russian Nuclear Weapons
Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told a local paper recently that American concerns would fall on deaf ears so “long as the U.S. doesn’t reconsider its extremely hostile line toward Russia,” a parting shot at the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine.
A recent summit in Cairo to discuss such matter stalled with Russian officials withdrawing from the talks at the last minute.
Such recent developments have undermined confidence among senior Republicans.
“There now isn’t a single treaty that Russia has not or is not violating,” Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told the Wall Street Journal. “The Joint Staff needs to assume Russia has or will be breaching New START caps. I want to see the plans for how the U.S. will respond.”
If New START were to be nullified or lapse, it would mark the first time since the 1970s that the two superpowers lacked an arms control treaty. New START is set to expire in roughly three years.