Russia has violated the New START treaty cutting long-range nuclear arms by refusing to allow on-site inspections and rebuffing Washington’s requests to meet to discuss its compliance concerns, the U.S. State Department said in a report sent to Congress on Tuesday.
The State Department’s finding that Moscow is in “noncompliance” with the accord marks the first time that the U.S. has accused Russia of violating the treaty, which entered into force in 2011.
The lack of inspections has also made it harder to verify the number of warheads Russia has deployed under the accord, the State Department added.
The finding comes amid concerns that the sharp tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may endanger prospects of cooperating on arms control and negotiating a follow-on agreement that would take effect after the New START treaty expires in 2026.
The Biden administration is eager to preserve the New START treaty, which is the last major agreement regulating the nuclear competition between the two sides, and is pressing Russia to correct the violations.
“There is a clear path to re-compliance here, and we continue to strongly value the treaty,” said a senior State Department official. “Both of these instances of noncompliance are easily remedied.”
Russian officials have been aware that the State Department was due to report to Congress soon on Moscow’s compliance with the New START treaty and have sought to blame the U.S. for the waning cooperation on implementing the agreement.
Sergei Ryabkov,
a deputy Russian foreign minister, told the Russian newspaper Kommersant last week that it was difficult to address Washington’s concerns “as long as the U.S. doesn’t reconsider its extremely hostile line toward Russia.”
Mr. Ryabkov, in an email sent Tuesday to The Wall Street Journal, did not address the inspection issue but noted that “Russia has been consistently in full and strict…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at WSJ.com: World News…