Russia suspends participation in the Strategic Offensive Arms Reduction Treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin informed that the Russian Federation is suspending its participation in the Strategic Offensive Arms Reduction (SOAR) Treaty.

He stated this during his address to the Federal Assembly on February 21.

Putin emphasized that it is about a suspension, not a complete withdrawal from the agreement.

According to him, the reason for this was the fact that other Western nuclear powers continue to develop their nuclear weapons and insist on access to Russian nuclear facilities. In addition, he stated that the U.S. allegedly continues to develop new nuclear weapons and is preparing for tests.

Putin also wants European countries, in particular France and Great Britain, to join this treaty.

• The Treaty on the Reduction of Strategic Offensive Arms is one of the main agreements between the USA and the USSR, and then Russia, in the matter of control over the nuclear weapons of both countries. The Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Weapons was signed between Russia and the United States in 2010. This is already the third agreement between the two states — the largest owners of nuclear weapons, and it will be valid until 2026. The United States signed the first such agreement with the USSR in the summer of 1991, and the second with Russia in 1993. The agreements provide that Russia and the United States will jointly reduce their nuclear warheads, as well as the possible carriers of nuclear weapons, from missiles to strategic bombers.
• The main means of control under this agreement are bilateral inspections. That is, the representatives of Russia and the USA have the right to visit each otherʼs nuclear facilities and personally check whether each country is really reducing its nuclear weapons.
• The bilateral consultative commission, which deals with practical issues of the implementation of the Treaty on the SOAR, last met in Geneva in October 2021. In the summer of 2022, the Russian side did not allow the American delegation to its nuclear missiles.