New START Treaty: Russia to abide nuclear treaty with US despite expiration

Russia has extended an olive branch to the US. President Vladimir Putin has suggested abiding by the ‘New START’ nuclear treaty for additional year, even though it is set to expire in February 2026. But Putin has one condition: the US must reciprocate.

The treaty first came into force about 15 years ago, when Barack Obama was still president. It is now the last remaining nuclear commitments that the US and Russia share. But this too is on thin ice. Russia unilaterally pulled out of the treaty in 2023, soon after launching its deadly invasion of Ukraine.

Now, a conditional and informal extension is on the cards between the world's top two atomic powers.

What is the START Agreement?

The agreement restricts both sides to a maximum of 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads each, a reduction of nearly 30 percent from the previous limit set in 2002.

It also allowed both sides to carry out on-site inspections of the other's nuclear arsenal, although these were halted during the coronavirus pandemic and have not resumed since.

The recent proposal from Putin did not provide for a resumption of these inspections, which were central to the original agreement.

"Fully abandoning the legacy of this agreement would be, from many perspectives, a mistaken and short-sighted step," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised meeting.

"To avoid provoking a strategic arms race... Russia is prepared to continue adhering to the central quantitative limitations of the New START Treaty for one year after February 5, 2026," Putin added.

"We believe that 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," he said.

But why has Russia offered to stick to the treaty’s limits, especially just months before its expiration?

Well, the first obvious answer would be not to spark an arms race. Russia and the US together control over 80% of the world’s nuclear warheads, and the absence of an agreement may spiral out of control — like it has in the past.

But experts suggest that there may be something bigger at play here. It may be a move to slow down Donald Trump’s idea of constructing a ‘Golden Dome’ of defence around the US. And no limitations on nuclear warheads may result in the US fortifying itself with a range of nuclear weapons.

Anti-proliferation talks between Russia and the United States, which together control more than 80 percent of the world's nuclear warheads, have deteriorated in recent years.

In 2019, the two countries withdrew from the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.

In 2023, Putin signed a law revoking Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, although Moscow said it would stick to the moratorium on atomic testing.