Russia Will Stick To Nuclear Arms Limits If US Does The Same
One of the globe's biggest developing stories this month, but which has been largely underreported in mainstream TV networks and other press, is the collapse of New START - the last major nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and the United States.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow will in good faith stick to the nuclear limits outlined in the now-expired arms control treaty, provided Washington does the same.
It expired earlier this month after Washington declined to respond to President Vladimir Putin’s proposal for a one-year extension capping both sides' nuclear arsenals.
The Trump admin has long wanted a more comprehensive agreement which brings China's arsenal into the scope; however, there's been no formal process on this front with Beijing or Moscow.
Lavrov said Russia has no intention of rapidly expanding or deploying additional weapons, clarifying remarks from his ministry last week that suggested Moscow no longer considered itself bound by the treaty.
"We proceed from the fact that this moratorium, which was announced by our president, remains in effect, but only while the United States does not exceed the outlined limits," Lavrov told Russia's parliament.
Some key aspects to the treaty have gone unobserved for some time, especially the regimen of mutual nuclear site inspections.
President Trump has in the recent past called New START "badly negotiated" and said it "is being grossly violated. He has in mind Russia having blocked inspections of its nuclear facilities under the treaty framework in 2023, as tensions with Washington escalated over the proxy war in Ukraine.
Moscow has in turn complained that Washington is the chief violator, and that it now refuses to respond to Putin's overture to extend it by one year, while a more comprehensive and extended deal is negotiated.
That's it. For the first time since 1972, Russia (the former USSR) and the US have no treaty limiting strategic nuclear forces. SALT 1, SALT 2, START I, START II, SORT, New START – all in the past. pic.twitter.com/D3TBZM9ffC
— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) February 4, 2026
Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave insight into why the White House has let New START expire: "Obviously, the president's been clear in the past that in order to have true arms control in the 21st century, it's impossible to do something that doesn't include China because of their vast and rapidly growing stockpile," he explained.