US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called Russian President Vladimir Putin's statement about the suspension of participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START or START-3) extremely irresponsible and disappointing, he is quoted by The New York Times.
According to him, Washington will closely monitor the actions of the Russian Federation. Blinken also specified that the United States is ready to discuss strategic arms limitation with Russia at any time, regardless of what is happening in the world or in relations between countries.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in turn, argues that statements about "threats" against Russia are absurd. He commented on Putin's message to the Federal Assembly to Agence France-Presse.
“No one is attacking Russia. There is some absurdity in the notion that Russia was under any kind of military threat from Ukraine or anyone else.”
At the same time, the United States does not yet see any reason to change the country's nuclear policy, said State Department spokesman Ned Price.
Regrets in connection with Russia's withdrawal from START-3 were expressed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, he is quoted by Interfax. According to him, in recent years Russia has withdrawn from key arms control agreements. With the withdrawal from START, the entire arms control architecture was "dismantled," he stressed.
"I urge Russia to reconsider its decision and abide by existing agreements."
Earlier on February 21, Putin announced that the Russian Federation was suspending participation in the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS that the decision on the suspension still needs to be approved by the Russian parliament, Putin will introduce the document promptly. Separately, he added that Russia did not warn the United States in advance, they learned about it from Putin's message. Military expert, researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences Ilya Kramnik said that this is a political gesture in the framework of the Russian-American confrontation.
The START-3 Treaty (New START Treaty) is a bilateral agreement between Russia and the United States on further mutual reduction of the arsenals of deployed strategic nuclear weapons, signed in 2010. The document defines how many missiles, nuclear warheads, bombers adapted for the use of nuclear weapons, and launchers each of the two countries can have. The United States and Russia have agreed that each side will reduce the number of nuclear warheads to 1,550 units, intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers to 700 units.