The Kremlin has stated that it does not consider the possibility of extending the treaty between Russia and the United States on further mutual reduction of arsenals of deployed strategic nuclear weapons (START). At the moment there are no relations between Russia and the US.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said this.
"As someone who was directly involved in the START-3 and signed it in 2010, I consider the time for new negotiations the most inopportune," he said.
According to Medvedev, at the moment Russia has no relations with the United States.
"They are at the zero Kelvin point. And there is no need to unfreeze them today. And there is no need to negotiate with them yet. It's not good for Russia," he added.
According to Medvedev, the resumption of any relations between the Kremlin and the White House is possible if they "run or crawl themselves and ask for it.
"And they appreciate it as a special favor. Otherwise, it looks like this: they give us all kinds of abominations, and we give them the nuclear deal," he summarized.
To remind, this treaty was signed by Presidents Dmitri Medvedev (at that time) and Barack Obama on April 8, 2010 in Prague and went into effect on February 5, 2011, replacing the START I treaty that expired in December 2009 and the agreement on strategic offensive reduction of May 24, 2002. The Treaty was designed for 10 years with the possibility of extension by mutual agreement of the parties for 5 years.
On January 27, 2021 the Russian Federation ratified the agreement between Russia and the USA on extending the START treaty until February 5, 2026. On January 29, Russian President Putin signed the law prolonging the START treaty and on February 3, the agreement went into force.
As previously reported, Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov recently suggested that Washington begin negotiations to develop a treaty that would replace START III. The U.S. State Department had previously said it was interested in extending the treaty beyond 2026.
