Russia says it is ready for world without nuclear limits

Russia has said that it is ready for a new reality in which there are no limits on nuclear weapons after the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-III) expires later this week.

Source: Russian newspaper Kommersant, citing Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov during a press conference at the Russian Embassy in China, as reported by European Pravda

Details: If the US and Russia do not reach a last-minute agreement, they would be left without any limits on their long-range strategic nuclear arsenals for the first time in more than half a century once the treaty expires on Thursday 5 February.

Ryabkov said Russia was prepared for a new reality with no arms restrictions.

Quote: "We reckoned, we assumed that this could happen, there is nothing unexpected here and we also see no grounds to dramatise events."

More details: Ryabkov added that dialogue on strategic stability was impossible without a shift in Washington's foreign policy towards Moscow.

Quote: "Far-reaching shifts are needed, changes for the better in the overall US approach to relations with us."

In a comment to The New York Times last month, US President Donald Trump said he would allow the treaty to lapse, while adding that a "a better agreement" is needed.

A web of agreements put in place after the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 to reduce the risk of nuclear war has been steadily unravelled, as the confrontation between Moscow and the West over Ukraine has intensified and US concerns about China have grown.

The US proposed that China join arms control talks, but Beijing has shown no desire to do so.

Ryabkov said that China has a clear position on arms control and that Moscow respects it.

Background: Back in February 2023, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was "suspending" its participation in the New START treaty, even though the document does not provide for such a mechanism. The move came amid Moscow's nuclear blackmail of the West. Russia nevertheless remained a party to the treaty.

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