US says Russia violating nuclear arms control treaty

The United States has accused Russia of violating the New START Treaty, the last major pillar of post-Cold War nuclear arms control between the two countries, saying Moscow was refusing to allow inspection activities on its territory.

The treaty came into force in 2011 and was extended in 2021 for five more years. It caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.

The two countries, which during the Cold War were constrained by a tangle of arms control agreements, still account for about 90 per cent of the world’s nuclear warheads.

Washington has been eager to preserve the treaty but ties with Moscow are the worst in decades over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which could complicate attempts by President Joe Biden’s administration to maintain and reach a follow-on agreement.

“Russia’s refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of US-Russian nuclear arms control,” a State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Russian ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that “arms control cannot be isolated from geopolitical realities” and Russia saw it as inappropriate to invite the US military to its strategic facilities at the moment.

Antonov said Russia would nevertheless stick to other New START terms and limitations.

Moscow in August suspended co-operation with inspections under the treaty, blaming travel restrictions imposed by Washington and its allies after Russian forces invaded neighbour Ukraine in February last year, but said it was still committed to complying with the provisions of the treaty.

The State Department spokesperson said Russia had a “clear path” for returning to compliance by allowing inspection activities, and Washington remained ready to work with Russia to fully implement the treaty.

Talks between Moscow and Washington on resuming inspections under New START were due to take place in November in Egypt, but Russia postponed them and neither side has set a new date.

The United States has supplied more than $US27 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the invasion.