Address of the President of Russia on February 21 and issues of the nuclear agreement

    Address of the President of Russia on February 21 and                            issues of the nuclear agreement

 Nika Chitadze.

Professor of the International Black Sea University.

Director of the Center for International Studies

President of the George C. Marshall Alumni Union, Georgia - International and Security Research Center  

In the February 21 address of Russian President Putin to the Federal Assembly, which was specially timed to coincide with the approach of the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as expected, only distortion of facts and complete lies prevailed.

 

However, Putin still touched on one of the world's most pressing issues - the strategic nuclear arms control mechanism - when he announced that Russia was suspending its participation in the Treaty on the "Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms", which the Russians refer to as Limitation of Strategic Offensive Weapons - III, and the Americans - as New START.

 

This agreement between the two nuclear states, the USA and the Russian Federation, was signed in Prague on April 8, 2010, and was signed by the then Presidents of the USA and Russia, Barack Obama, and Dmitry Medvedev.

 

We can say with full responsibility that, first of all, to reduce and control the strategic nuclear weapons with Russia, then President Obama started with the Kremlin the Reset policy because the US president hoped that by warming relations with Russia, along with solving the nuclear problem, the West would be able to solve the situation in Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear program, the creation of an anti-missile shield in Europe, and other global problems.

And 13 years later, Putin is going to play the same card - due to Washington's military assistance to Ukraine, Russia is suspending its participation in this treaty, taking into account the consequences.

 It can be considered, what this "nuclear deal" between the US and Russia represents, which, as the Kremlin suggests, may give serious thought to the White House and the West.

 

Since 1972, this was the seventh treaty that defined the parity of American and Soviet/Russian strategic nuclear weapons and thereby regulated the nuclear confrontation between the two states, as it provided for mutual inspections of strategic facilities, which almost eliminated the secret, combat-ready deployment of uncountable strategic nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.

By the way, this agreement, which was concluded for 10 years, expired in 2021, but then President Putin himself signed an extension of this agreement for another five years, until February 2026.

 

This treaty stipulates that the United States and the Russian Federation may have in combat readiness (each side) no more than 700 intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers capable of carrying no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads, as well as combat-ready and no more than 800 missile launchers.

 

This arrangement worked, in principle, because as of September 1, 2020, the US arsenal included 675 strategic nuclear warhead carriers, 1,457 nuclear warheads, and 800 combat-ready and inactive launchers.

 

According to the data of the same year 2020, the strategic nuclear arsenal of the Russian Federation looked like this - 510 units of strategic nuclear warhead carriers, 1,447 nuclear warheads, and 764 combat-ready and non-combat launchers.

 

Russia's announcement of a moratorium on participation in this agreement means that mutual inspections will be stopped and the control mechanism will be completely disrupted. By the way, Putin's regime has already taken some action when it tested an intercontinental ballistic missile. The name of the said missile is SARMAT, which is called Satan II in the West.

 

Based on the above-mentioned factors, it can be said that nuclear militarization may begin at a new increasing pace.