Russia suspends its participation in the treaty on reduction of strategic offensive arms. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking with an address to the Federal Assembly, BelTA informs.
"They want to defeat us strategically, they are trying to reach our nuclear facilities. In this regard I have to announce today that Russia suspends its participation in the New START Treaty. Not withdrawing from the treaty, but suspending its participation.
He called the West's demands to allow their inspections of Russian nuclear facilities in the current circumstances a theater of the absurd. "I recall that in early February of this year there was a statement by the North Atlantic Alliance with a de facto demand from Russia, as they put it, to return to compliance with the treaty on reduction of strategic offensive arms, including allowing inspections at Russian nuclear defense facilities. I don't even know what to call it, some kind of theater of the absurd. We know that the West is directly involved in the Kiev regime's attempts to strike our strategic air bases. The drones used for this purpose were equipped and modernized with the assistance of NATO specialists. And now they want to inspect our defense facilities as well. In the current conditions of today's confrontation this sounds like nonsense," said the President of Russia.
He drew attention to the fact that the West does not allow the Russian side to carry out full-fledged inspections within the framework of this treaty. "Our repeated requests for inspection of various facilities remain unanswered or are rejected on formal grounds. And we can't verify anything on the other side," stated Vladimir Putin.
"By issuing its collective statement, NATO has essentially made a bid to become a party to the START Treaty. We agree with this, please, moreover, we believe that such a formulation of the issue is long overdue, because NATO, recall, have not just one nuclear power the United States, but the UK and France also have nuclear arsenals, they are being improved, developed and also directed against Russia," Vladimir Putin stressed.
"We cannot ignore this, we have no right, especially today. Just like the fact that the first START treaty was originally concluded between the USSR and the US in 1991 in a fundamentally different situation, in an environment of reduced tensions and increased mutual trust. Then our relations reached a level where Russia and the United States declared that they no longer considered each other adversaries."
