Vladimir Putin has signed the law suspending Russia’s participation in the New START, a nuclear arms reduction treaty with the US, the government website states.
The decision to resume participation is up to the Russian president, the decree says.
Putin declared his intentions to suspend Russia’s participation during his address to the Federal Assembly on 21 February. The law was adopted by both chambers of the Russian parliament the next day.
Soon Putin also signed a decree “on measures to implement Russia’s external policy”. The decree said that Russia “attributes importance to abiding by the treaty on further reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms”.
The treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive weapons was signed by the then presidents of Russia and the US Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama on 8 April 2010 in Prague. The treaty is known as the New Start, or Prague Treaty. It entered into force in 2011 and was extended until 5 February 2026 in January 2021.
The treaty said that the signatories obliged to reduce the number of deployed nuclear ammunitions to 1550 units, and to 700 units of intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers.
