Russia’s State Duma has unanimously passed a law suspending the country’s participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) today.
According to the document, which was submitted to the State Duma by President Vladimir Putin, Russia suspends its participation in the treaty and the president will make a decision on its resumption. The law will enter into force on the day of its official publication.
Putin announced in his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly on Tuesday that Russia was suspending its participation in the New START treaty but was not withdrawing from it. The head of state emphasized that before resuming discussions of further activities under the treaty, Russia needed to figure it out for itself how the arsenals of NATO’s other nuclear-weapons countries, the UK and France, would be taken into account along with US capacities.
