Washington (EFE)
The government of US President Joe Biden made that accusation against Russia in a report that the State Department sent to Congress to inform it of the situation of the New START, which was signed in 2010 and extended in 2021 for five more years.
The US had unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with Russia to resume nuclear weapons inspections on the ground, which have been on hold since 2020, first due to the pandemic and then due to restrictions on travel between the two countries after the Russian invasion from Ukraine.
Having failed to make progress, the Biden government decided to formally accuse Russia of breaching the treaty.
According to the State Department, the Russian refusal of inspections “threatens” the ability of the United States to exercise some of the arms control rights contained in the New START and, especially, “threatens the viability of the control system of weapons between the United States and Russia.
stagnant relationship
In addition to the inspections, the United States assures that Russia has not complied with another of the obligations contained in the New START: the holding of a bilateral commission on the treaty.
Russia has argued that the conditions for holding meetings of this bilateral commission do not exist and blames the rhetoric and actions of the US -the largest supplier of arms to Ukraine-, which it also accuses of constantly provoking it. .
Just this Tuesday, the United States and Russia had resumed contacts on arms control with meetings in Moscow.
What is the nuclear pact?
Signed in 2010 by then-US and Russian presidents Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev, New START limits the number of long-range nuclear warheads each country can have deployed to 1,550.
It also restricts the number of vehicles and launch systems that both countries can have deployed or in reserve, but its cornerstone is the verification regime that the treaty establishes to ensure that these limits are met.
Specifically, both the United States and Russia can carry out up to 18 inspections a year of each other’s nuclear arsenals with little time for the receiving country to prepare: technicians give 32-hour notice before arriving and then choose the site they want to examine. , which must be respected by the receiving authorities.
