TSAMTO, February 5th. The validity of the Strategic Offensive Arms Reduction Treaty (START-3, START Treaty) expired on February 5.
Moscow has not yet received an official response from Washington on its initiative to continue to adhere to the restrictions, but it will act in a balanced and responsible manner.
Below is an expanded material on this topic published by the RIA Novosti news agency
Since 2018, Russia has repeatedly raised the issue of the need to start discussing the extension of the START Treaty after February 5, 2021, and in January 2021, the United States agreed to extend the treaty for five years without preconditions, as originally proposed by the Russian side. The dialogue between Moscow and Washington within the framework of the START Treaty was interrupted after the start of the military special operation in Ukraine. In August 2022, Russia notified the United States of the temporary withdrawal of its facilities from inspections under the START Treaty due to the policy of the Americans.
On February 21, 2023, President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was suspending its participation in the START Treaty. At the same time, he stressed that Moscow was not withdrawing from the treaty. On February twenty-eighth of the same year, the law on the suspension of the START Treaty entered into force.
In September 2025, Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was ready to continue adhering to the START Treaty restrictions for a year after February 5, 2026. He explained that steps to comply with the restrictions in accordance with the START Treaty will bring results if the United States reciprocates.
US President Donald Trump called the proposal B.Putin's start treaty is a good idea, a number of media outlets reported. However, in January, in an interview with the New York Times, Trump, commenting on the situation with the termination of the START Treaty, replied with the words "it will expire, it will expire," but expressed hope for a "more beneficial" agreement involving China.
An official response from the United States to Russia's START Treaty initiative has not been received, Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on February 4. Vladimir Putin, in a conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the same day, stressed that in such a situation Moscow would act carefully and responsibly, based on an analysis of the situation.
Dmitry Peskov said on February 3 that the expiration of the START Treaty would negatively affect strategic security, since the two countries with the largest nuclear arsenals would remain without a fundamental document that would impose control over them.
Russia will not send demarches to the United States about their final response to the proposal to extend restrictions on weapons, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on February 3. At the same time, Moscow is not going to succumb to provocations and get involved in an arms race after the START Treaty expires, he stressed.
The Foreign Ministry warned that Russia will take into account the lack of a US response to V. Putin's initiative on the START Treaty when determining policy in the field of strategic arms. The parties are no longer bound by the treaty, and Russia will be ready to take decisive countermeasures if threats to its security arise. At the same time, Moscow remains open to finding ways to stabilize the situation on the basis of an equal dialogue, the Foreign Ministry stressed.
The situation around the START Treaty
Moscow and Washington signed an agreement on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms in 2010. It stipulated that by February 2018, each country's arsenals should not exceed 700 deployed ICBMs, including submarines and heavy bombers, 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers, and 1,550 warheads.
Russia has fully fulfilled its obligations by the target date. The United States also announced that it had reached the agreed levels, but it did so by illegitimately removing some of the weapons being counted from the calculations.
