Russia suspends participation in START treaty limiting nuclear weapons

The Jerusalem Post reports: “Russia would suspend involvement in the new START nuclear treaty Russian President Vladimir Putin announced at an address at the Federal Assembly on Tuesday, in a speech about the challenges facing his country.

Putin said that Russia would not withdraw fully from START, only suspend its participation and that its return to the treaty was predicated on the status of NATO’s combined nuclear arsenal.

Putin said that the Defense Ministry and the Rosatom state nuclear corporation should be prepared to conduct nuclear tests if necessary, but that the Kremlin would not be the first to conduct them. He said that officials in Washington were considering testing nuclear weapons.

Ninety percent of Russia’s nuclear forces have been refitted with the latest systems, Putin said. The Russian military would also be armed with the most advanced technologies possible, and many Russian weapon models were vastly superior to their foreign counterparts…”

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