“A typical reception for America”: how the United States is trying to impose conditions on Russia for the resumption of dialogue on START

The authorities of the United States, trying to link negotiations on a new agreement to replace the Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START, START III) with the resumption of inspection activities, distort the meaning of the arms control dialogue.

This opinion was expressed by the Russian Ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov.

“We consider such a statement of the question to be unjustified.

The American side in a distorted light interprets the meaning of the arms control dialogue, including the development of a new agreement to replace START, ”he said.

According to the diplomat, in February 2022, the United States proactively froze the successfully advancing consultations on strategic stability, and now put forward conditions for their restart, which indicates the neglect of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons by the American side.

“At the heart of the problems of resuming START inspections is the anti-Russian sanctions policy of the United States.

It de facto blocks our country from conducting inspections on American territory, ”Antonov recalled.

He explained that in order to resume the inspections that Washington insists on, it is necessary to first resolve the issues of air communication between Russia, the United States and their European allies, as well as the issuance of visas for Russian inspection teams and flight crews.

“Instead of misleading stuff in the media, we call on the United States to continue cooperation through diplomatic channels in order to resume inspection activities as soon as possible on the parity basis provided for by the START,” the ambassador said.

• Embassy of the Russian Federation in Washington

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• © Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency

A previously unnamed representative of the White House National Security Council, in a commentary to Reuters, stressed that the United States does not intend to negotiate START III with Russia until the parties resume mutual inspections of nuclear weapons facilities.

A similar thesis was made in the State Department.

"Frank provocation"

Recall that the Presidents of Russia and the United States signed the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms in 2010 for a period of ten years.

According to the text of the document, the states undertook to reduce their strategic offensive arms in such a way that seven years after the entry into force of the document and in the future, their total number would not exceed 700 deployed ICBMs, ballistic missiles of submarines (SLBMs) ​​and heavy bombers (TB), 1550 warheads per of them, as well as 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers of ICBMs, SLBMs and TBs.

In February 2021, Moscow and Washington extended the agreement for five years.

As the Russian Foreign Ministry clarified then, the agreement will be valid until February 5, 2026 in its current form, without any changes or additions.

Under Article XI of START, Russia and the United States have the right to conduct two types of inspections at each other's facilities to confirm the accuracy of declared data on the number and types of deployed and non-deployed strategic offensive weapons subject to the treaty.

The first type of checks are carried out at ICBM bases, submarine bases and air bases.

The second type includes inspections at the places of loading, repair and storage of missiles.

In total, each party has the right to conduct up to 18 inspections per year: ten inspections of the first type and eight of the second.

In March 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the United States and Russia agreed to suspend mutual checks, but data exchange continued.

However, after the announcement of the start of a special military operation in Ukraine, the dialogue on strategic stability was interrupted at the initiative of the United States.

At the same time, Washington insists on further inspections.

However, the Russian side considers them impossible due to obstacles from the American side.

Moreover, on August 8, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it had informed the United States about the temporary withdrawal of its facilities from inspection activities, since such a possibility is provided for by paragraph 5 of Section I of Chapter Five of the Protocol to the START Treaty.

“The Russian Federation is now forced to resort to this measure as a result of Washington’s stubborn desire to implicitly achieve a restart of inspection activities on conditions that do not take into account existing realities, create unilateral advantages for the United States and effectively deprive the Russian Federation of the right to carry out inspections on American soil,” the statement said. ministry statement.

• Trident II ballistic missile launch

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• © Phil Sandlin

As Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov explained the next day, the “trigger” in this situation was a notification received from the American side about the intention to conduct an inspection on Russian territory in the coming days. 

“In the current circumstances, such a step looked, in fact, like an outright provocation,” the diplomat stressed.

Looking for the "right conditions"

In the United States, however, they deny allegations that the restrictive measures introduced by Western countries prevent specialists from the Russian Federation from visiting American facilities for inspection.

“Our sanctions and restrictive measures ... are fully compatible with START III.

They do not prevent Russian inspectors from conducting inspections in the United States under the START III treaty.

We addressed this to Russia,” said Ned Price, head of the press service of the US State Department, at a briefing on August 22.

According to him, anti-Russian restrictions and other measures supposedly "in no way limit" the obligations of the United States under the START and "do not contradict them in any way."

In turn, US Deputy Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Bonnie Jenkins at a briefing on August 25 noted that the issue of inspections has not yet been resolved.

“We are still trying to figure out how we can make it happen.

We know that there is some resistance from Russia, but we are still in the process, still trying to figure out how we can make progress (in this matter. -

),” she stressed.

At the same time, Jenkins stated that the United States and the Russian Federation are not currently discussing an agreement that should replace START, citing the "current situation."

“These negotiations will continue in the future when the right conditions are in place,” she said, without specifying what is meant by “the right conditions.”

Earlier, US President Joe Biden, speaking on August 1 at a review conference on the implementation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), said that his administration was ready to quickly negotiate a new arms control system that would replace START III.

• US President Joe Biden

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• © Jim Watson-Pool

Commenting on the situation, the Kremlin noted that they were receiving signals from the White House about their intention to resume negotiations, but there was no significant progress in this direction.

“We are convinced that the resumption of these START negotiations should take place without any favors.

We are equally interested in this, the entire globe is interested in this, ”said the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov on August 31 in an interview with reporters.

No prospects

According to Konstantin Blokhin, a researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the US authorities, by laying down conditions for Russia to resume negotiations on a new agreement on strategic offensive arms, are trying to achieve unilateral preferences.

“The United States has already stated several times that it is ready to conclude a new START treaty with Russia.

So they try to position themselves as a responsible player interested in maintaining stability.

Russia, in their interpretation, is an irresponsible player, allegedly sabotaging all their efforts.

That is, they are once again trying to shift all the blame for what is happening to the Russian Federation, ”Blokhin explained in an interview with RT.

At the same time, according to him, the launch of the negotiation process is possible only on the principles of reciprocity, respect and trust.

However, there is no talk of this today, the expert believes, since the United States is imposing sanctions against the Russian Federation, calling it an evil empire and throwing in ideas about recognizing Russia as a country that supports terrorism.

Against this background, the demands of the Americans to resume inspections are groundless and hypocritical, the specialist noted.

“The United States lost contact with Russia through its own fault, falling into a trap that was being prepared for the Russian Federation.

Washington thought that Moscow would endure everything and let the American inspectors in.

However, agreements such as START do not work unilaterally,” Blokhin emphasized.

This point of view is shared by Yuri Rogulev, Director of the Franklin Roosevelt Foundation for the Study of the United States at Moscow State University.

He is sure that the United States is not really interested in resuming the dialogue.

“In addition, the current situation is really not conducive to negotiations.

After all, relations between countries are very strained, and the United States, which is responsible for this, does not want to make any compromises, without which further discussions on START are impossible, ”he explained in a conversation with RT.

According to the expert, another reason why the United States is in no hurry to start a negotiation process with the Russian Federation is the uncertainty of the position of the Joe Biden administration.

Will she stay in power or will a new president come?

Given this, Washington does not know if they really need these negotiations, and therefore they are trying to hide behind "intractable" Russia, accusing it of disrupting the dialogue.

A typical reception for America, ”Rogulev argues.

The impossibility of conducting a productive dialogue on the development of a new document in the current conditions and the absurdity of the demands of the American side to resume inspections of nuclear facilities was indicated in a commentary by RT and director of the Center for Military-Political Research at MGIMO Alexei Podberyozkin.

According to him, the United States seeks to limit Russian hypersonic weapons, as they are lagging behind in this area.

However, they do not understand that this cannot be achieved by issuing ultimatums, so Podberyozkin does not expect real progress in the direction of work on replacing START in the near future.

“It is clear that everything will depend on how relations between Russia and the United States develop.

It is impossible to heat up the situation with one hand, preparing, in fact, for war, and with the other to demand a reduction in armaments.

Washington must understand that it is impossible to speak with Russia in the language of ultimatums, ”the expert concluded.