On Thursday, February 5, 2026, the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Arms, concluded between Russia and the United States, expires. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Moscow had proposed to Washington to voluntarily adhere to the restrictions after the agreement's expiration, but had not received an official response from the United States. This is stated in the ministry's statement, as reported by UNN.
On February 5, 2026, the life cycle of the Russian-American Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, signed by the parties on April 8, 2010, which entered into force on February 5, 2011, and was extended for a five-year period in February 2021 based on the corresponding one-time opportunity embedded in this agreement, finally concludes.
Moscow recalled that in February 2023, the operation of the New START Treaty was suspended by Russia amidst an unsatisfactory state of affairs regarding the implementation of certain aspects of the treaty, as well as in view of absolutely unacceptable actions by the United States that contradict the fundamental principles and understandings for this agreement, as enshrined in its preamble.
China must be part of future nuclear arms talks - Rubio04.02.26, 20:10 • [views_2186]
This measure was forced and became an inevitable reaction of the Russian side to the extremely hostile policy of the Joe Biden administration, which led to a fundamental change in circumstances in the security sphere, as well as to a number of illegitimate steps by Washington in the context of specific provisions of the New START Treaty, which collectively was qualified as a material breach incompatible with the further full implementation of the treaty.
Lavrov's office emphasized that despite obvious problematic issues, the New START Treaty generally fulfilled its main functions, but destructive steps by the United States made the full-scale implementation of the treaty at the final stage of its existence counterproductive for the Russian side.
On September 22, 2025, President Putin publicly put forward an initiative for the parties to the New START Treaty to adopt voluntary self-restrictions on observing the "ceilings" enshrined in the treaty at the level of relevant armaments for at least one year after the termination of the said agreement. However, no formalized official reaction from the United States to the Russian initiative through bilateral channels was ever received. Public comments from the American side also provide no grounds to conclude that Washington is ready to adhere to the course of action in the field of START proposed by Russia. In essence, it means that our ideas are deliberately left unanswered. Such an approach seems erroneous and regrettable.
Recall
The United States and Russia could embark on an unbridled arms race for the first time since the Cold War if they fail to reach a last-minute agreement before the expiration of the last arms control treaty, which ends in less than a week.