By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Related Press
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned Monday that Moscow will adhere to nuclear arms limits for yet another yr beneath the final remaining nuclear pact with america that expires in February, and he urged Washington to observe swimsuit.
Putin declared that the termination of the 2010 New START could be destabilizing and will gasoline proliferation of nuclear weapons.
“To avoid provoking a further strategic arms race and to ensure an acceptable level of predictability and restraint, we believe it is justified to try to maintain the status quo established by the New START Treaty during the current, rather turbulent period,” Putin mentioned in televised remarks. “Therefore, Russia is prepared to keep adhering to the central quantitative limitations of the New START Treaty for one year after Feb. 5, 2026.”
Arms management advocates lengthy have voiced concern concerning the treaty’s looming expiration and warned that it may gasoline a brand new spherical of nuclear arms race and enhance the danger of a nuclear battle.
Putin urges the U.S. to reciprocate
Putin famous that “based on our analysis of the situation, we will subsequently make a decision on maintaining these voluntary self-restraints.”
He emphasised that Russia anticipated the U.S. to observe its instance and in addition keep on with the treaty’s limits.
“We believe this measure will only be viable if the United States acts in a similar manner and does not take steps that undermine or disrupt the existing balance of deterrence potentials,” Putin mentioned.
Daryl G. Kimball, the director of the Washington-based Arms Management Affiliation, welcomed Putin’s assertion on X as “an important and positive move.”
He and different arms management specialists lengthy have prodded Moscow and Washington to rapidly attain an interim deal to take care of present nuclear weapons limits.
“More nuclear weapons will not make anyone safer,” Kimball mentioned in a commentary earlier this month. “By agreeing not to exceed the current strategic nuclear limits, they could reduce tensions, forestall a costly arms race that no one can win, create diplomatic leverage to curb the buildup of China’s arsenal, and buy time for talks on a broader, more durable, treaty.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has mentioned that he and Putin talked about nuclear weapons throughout their summit in Alaska final month. Requested to remark in July on a looming expiration of the New START, Trump famous “that is a big problem for the world, when you take off nuclear restrictions.”
Putin instructed Russian companies to “closely monitor relevant American activities, particularly with regard to the strategic offensive arms arsenal,” with a specific emphasis on plans to “expand the strategic components of the U.S. missile defense system, including preparations for the deployment of interceptors in space.”
“The practical implementation of such destabilizing actions could undermine our efforts to maintain the status quo in the strategic offensive arms sphere,” Putin warned, including that, in that case, “we will respond accordingly.”
He emphasised that Moscow’s honoring the pact’s limits may “make a significant contribution to creating an atmosphere conducive to substantive strategic dialogue with the U.S.,” offered that different efforts are additionally taken to normalize bilateral relations.
The pivotal pact
The New START, signed by then U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, limits every nation to not more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. Its looming expiration and the shortage of dialogue on anchoring a successor deal have nervous arms management advocates.
The pact additionally envisaged sweeping on-site inspections to confirm compliance, however they had been halted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and by no means resumed.
In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow’s participation within the treaty, saying that Russia couldn’t enable U.S. inspections of its nuclear websites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have overtly declared Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine as their objective.
On the identical time, Russia has emphasised that it wasn’t withdrawing from the pact altogether and pledged to respect the caps on nuclear weapons set beneath the treaty and maintain notifying the U.S. about check launches of ballistic missiles.
One other U.S.-Russian nuclear arms pact — the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty that banned land-based missiles with a spread between 500-5,500 kilometers (310-3,400 miles) — was terminated in 2019.
Putin’s assertion comes at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West, fueling considerations that combating may unfold past Ukraine’s borders as European international locations rebuked Russia for what they mentioned had been provocations. The incidents have included Russian drones touchdown on Polish soil and Estonia accusing Russian fighter jets of intruding into its airspace.
The Related Press receives assist for nuclear safety protection from the Carnegie Company of New York and Outrider Basis. The AP is solely accountable for all content material.
Initially Printed: September 22, 2025 at 9:53 AM EDT
