On Tuesday Vladimir Putin announced he will suspend participation in the START nuclear treaty.
Putin announced the suspension during a speech to both houses of the Russian parliament in a speech in which he accused the West of seeking to destroy Russia.
Explaining his decision to suspend Russia’s obligations under the 2010 New START treaty, Putin accused the U.S. and its NATO allies of openly declaring the goal of Russia’s defeat in Ukraine.
Way to go, Joe.
Reuters reported:
Russia will continue to observe limits on the number of nuclear warheads it can deploy under the New START treaty despite a decision to suspend participation in the agreement, Moscow said on Tuesday.
President Vladimir Putin announced the freeze during a speech to both houses of the Russian parliament in which he also repeated accusations the West was seeking to destroy Russia.
Later in the day Putin submitted a draft law on the suspension to the Duma, the lower house of parliament, which will consider it on Wednesday and take an immediate decision, Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in a statement.
The draft will then be sent to the Federation Council upper house, he said. Grigory Karasin, who chairs the Council’s international committee, told RIA news agency that the body might also consider the law on Wednesday.
Under the treaty, signed in 2010 and extended until 2026, Moscow and Washington committed to deploying no more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads and a maximum of 700 long-range missiles and bombers.
