The US State Department’s statement about Moscow’s violation of the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty (START) is “unfair, to put it mildly, and deceitful, to call a spade a spade.” This was announced on January 31 by the vice-speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev.
He explained that the Americans were the first to violate their obligations under the New START Treaty, creating conditions for their own unilateral inspection powers, while limiting such rights for Russia.
“That is, they are trying to implement the provisions of the START at an unbalanced level, that is, in their favor. Of course, this is unacceptable for Russia, because the mechanism of inspections prescribed in this agreement is absolutely balanced and can be implemented only with mutual consideration of the needs of the parties, ”RBC quotes the senator.
According to Kosachev, against the backdrop of what is happening in relations between Russia and the United States, there is “nothing critical” in the statement of the State Department.
“I would call the plots with the US withdrawal from all other agreements with Russia and before that with the Soviet Union on arms control much more critical. Yes, indeed, the START is still, fortunately, preserved,” he added.
Kosachev concluded that if the New START Treaty is destroyed, then it will definitely not be at the initiative of Russia and not at its fault.
Earlier in the day, The Wall Street Journal, citing a US State Department report, reported that, according to Washington, Moscow violated the terms of the START by blocking inspections from the American side and refusing to meet with it to discuss compliance with the treaty.
A day earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia remains committed to START, while the United States, meanwhile, is violating the treaty’s preamble, which speaks of the indivisibility of security. He explained that Russia fully complies with all the “quantitative and qualitative restrictions” established by the treaty, and Washington “in the most rude and cynical way” does not comply with the agreements prescribed in the treaty, carrying out frontal-aggressive containment of Moscow.
On December 28 last year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the US position on the resumption of inspections under the START Treaty not very fair. In particular, he noted that the sanctions imposed by the American side have seriously complicated the possibilities for carrying out cross inspections from a technical point of view.
On November 30, 2022, Ryabkov said that Moscow had postponed the meeting of the commission on START, as it could not ignore Washington’s actions in Ukraine.
In August, Russia temporarily withdrew its facilities from US inspections. The Russian Foreign Ministry explained this by the fact that Washington de facto deprived the Russian Federation of the right to conduct inspections of military nuclear facilities in the United States.
