A foundation for peace

The uncontrolled arms race has been postponed, and there is a chance that it will not start.

Russia has ratified the extension of the START III treaty on a parity basis for the next five years.

Our country has been talking for a long time about the need to issue a further start in life for this important agreement in the field of armaments.

Now the States have realized this too.

President Vladimir Putin called the extension "a step in the right direction."

According to him, in the international arena, "the contradictions are still twisting, as they say, in a spiral."

He recalled the catastrophe of World War II, which happened precisely because of the inability to resolve such problems.

The Russian leader expressed hope for the impossibility of a hot global conflict, which would mean "the end of civilization."

But if nothing is done, then everything can get out of control and "the situation can develop unpredictably and uncontrollably."

Especially if you remember that START III remained the last Russian-American arms limitation treaty, since the American side consistently and inexorably dismantled the entire architecture of treaty world security, whose roots go back to the Cold War.

Especially if you remember that lately there have been many voices calling into question the axiom about the end of civilization in the event of a nuclear conflict.

Voices relying on missile defense and hoping for a lack of determination to fight back.

This created many illusions, produced speculative rhetoric in the form of psychological attacks with saber rattling.

Through this, the dismantling of the global security system, which was declared obsolete, was carried out.

It should be noted that Putin's statement about the movement of contradictions "in a spiral" is not accidental.

The modern world has actually been thrown back into the early 70s of the last century, when a bilateral concept of nuclear safety began to be gradually built.

And this is not our fault: as then they imposed confrontation on us, so now the concept of the need to contain Russia.

Now the world, thrown back half a century, has again got a chance in the form of an extension of START III.

He will not be able to endlessly trample in one place and spin "in a spiral" without drawing conclusions and without recalling historical lessons.

Hence the important reference to the Second World War, when human civilization was again thrown back and ignoring the lessons of the first global conflict led to the multiplication of bloody horror at another, completely unthinkable turn.

It is important that the extension of START III marked a line of continuity, thanks to which it is possible to break out of this movement along the spiral of mistakes, dead ends and confrontations.

It reminded that even at the height of the Cold War, the powers could negotiate and did not release the situation into an uncontrollable plane, because mutual respect remained.

It was this treaty that was the last bond of peace, the last deterrent to the start of an unrestrained arms race.

This was also noted by the speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, who said that “the world was on the verge of developing an arms race,” in the whirlwind of which it could lead anywhere.

Now, "the two largest nuclear powers are making a decision, within the framework of which we will have a limited number of warheads, a reduction, a restriction on deployment."

In particular, a basis has been created for building further contractual relations.

All bridges cannot be burned, especially when it comes to issues of global security and strategic stability.

The five-year respite should be active and used to work out a new architecture for world security.

Thus, Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma's international affairs committee, expressed the hope that this time "will give an opportunity to intensify further negotiations in the field of arms control between the Russian Federation and the United States," the security system will grow with new fundamental documents and new states will join it.

“Russia has consistently advocated the prolongation of the START Treaty.

Today's decision of the Russian parliament will be a major historic step towards preserving the entire system of strategic stability and nuclear deterrence in the world, ”said the head of the committee.

Will this have a significant effect on Russian-American relations?

Hardly.

But the ratification itself has shown that our countries have not yet forgotten how to negotiate, the sense of responsibility for peace has not been lost.

The hope remains that in the foreseeable future the page of the present imposed rejection will also be turned over.

For the sake of START III, President Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin, which means that there is a subject for dialogue, and not just for threats, accusations and blackmail.

This is good news today.

Again, the situation indicated an important thing: in the field of global security, Russia cannot be done without, it cannot be ignored, Moscow has been and remains the center for making many key decisions.

Who knows, maybe through this they will learn to treat us as equals, and not hide in their concepts of the Shining City on the hill.

The relief of the planet is diverse, and there are many hills ...

Again, if we talk about historical spirals, then we can recall the calls of the last Soviet secretary general for new thinking.

Gorbachev called for a restructuring of Soviet-American relations.

In order for the States to move away from the inertia laid down by Churchill's Fulton speech, get rid of the "habit of command", overcome the image of the enemy and the evil of alienation.

Then the Soviet Union, overwhelmed by the ideas of leadership in the cause of peace, plunged into the waters of new thinking unilaterally and imposed a disarmament race on itself with good will - what came of this is well known.

The balance was upset, and the same unipolar imbalance occurred, which not only threw the world far back, but also exacerbated all the problems.

The restructuring of Russian-American relations is also long overdue, but this will not happen soon.

Our partner-opponents have too much to spin the flywheel of the race of Russophobia, which has become the dominant foreign policy doctrine.

You can't stop her quickly.

And no one is planning yet - it is too profitable for them.

In this regard, it would be nice if the world security system was augmented by a treaty on limiting Russophobic hysteria and creating an image of an enemy from Russia.

What can we say - an important step towards maintaining peace ...

It must also be admitted that the prolongation of START III is a good start to work with the new US administration, especially since the previous one was a "funeral command" for such key agreements.

Russia does not harbor great hopes and illusions, the only thing is that it hopes for the sanity of the American side, because life has shown that all the imbalances - even in the direction of unilateral disarmament and endless concessions, even to the extreme of a militaristic race - lead the processes into an uncontrollable plane.

In the current realities, all this can easily turn the world into a house of cards.

Here we can recall academician Andrei Sakharov, who just argued that the main task of human civilization is the need to "move away from the brink of a global catastrophe," because "talking about victory in a big thermonuclear war is meaningless - this is collective suicide."

On the other hand, the scientist defended the importance of the principle of the balance of nuclear forces, in which neither side could decide to unleash a war.

This is achieved by a system of agreements.

Russia understands this very well, and therefore speaks of developing common rules to make the world more predictable.

He also hopes that the day of the prolongation of START III will become a historic date - a milestone in the construction of a new system for curbing the arms race.

The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.