Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday that Moscow has stopped notifying the United States about its nuclear activities, including test launches, after Moscow withdrew from the New START nuclear arms control treaty last month.
The Interfax news agency quoted Ryabkov as saying: “All notifications, all forms of notification, all data exchanges, all inspection activities, all work under the agreement in general are suspended. They will not be implemented.”
The announcement comes as the Russian military has deployed mobile missile launchers in Siberia, in a display of the country’s formidable nuclear capabilities during the fighting in Ukraine.
Ryabkov said, in statements reported by Russian news agencies, that Moscow stopped exchanging information with Washington after it suspended its participation in the latest nuclear weapons agreement with the United States.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended his country’s participation in the New START treaty, stressing that Russia would not allow US inspections of its nuclear sites under the agreement, at a time when Washington and its NATO allies openly set Russia’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal.
From the signing of the New START agreement in 201-
Moscow confirmed that it had not completely withdrawn from the agreement, and would continue to respect the nuclear weapons limits set by the treaty.
The Russian Foreign Ministry initially said Moscow would continue to notify the United States about its ballistic missile tests, but Ryabkov’s statement reflected a change of course.
Asked if Moscow would also stop issuing notifications about the planned missile tests, Ryabkov said: “There will be no notifications at all. All notifications … there will be no notifications of any kind, all activities under the treaty will be suspended and will not be carried out regardless of position that the United States might take.
The United States announced on Tuesday that it would stop providing Russia with some information related to its nuclear forces.
The New START treaty, which was signed in 2010 and expires in 2026, sets a maximum number of strategic nuclear warheads that both countries can deploy. Russia and the United States are the two largest nuclear powers in the world.
