New Nuclear Arms Race: Experts explained what Putin's exit from SNO
This is a key treaty for nuclear weapons, and Putin's new statement is the last series of such nuclear threats from the Russian Federation. About it reports CNN. However, the treaty was, in fact, terminated, since Russia has not recently allowed international experts to check their nuclear weapons arsenal.
According to the journalists, Putin's statement cannot be considered an official exit from the treaty, and later in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation explained that Moscow will continue to comply with the restrictions stipulated by the contract and that the suspension of the contract "working out". The new SNO is the last of several treaties between the US and the Russian Federation, and above all from the USSR, about the reduction of nuclear potential.
This Agreement is valid until February 2026. Strategic nuclear weapons are large warheads that can erase cities from the ground. Russia and the United States also have a small "tactical" nuclear weapon, which does not apply to the SNO contract. But a little is known about the tactical nuclear arsenal of the Russian Federation. Such a treaty was signed by the President of Barack Obama and came into force in 2011, and in February 2021 it was continued.
The strategic nuclear weapons contract establishes certain restrictions on the number of nuclear units that each country can have. According to the publication on the US State Department's website, the restriction was as follows: in January the United States accused the Russian Federation of not entering inspectors for nuclear installations of the Russian Federation, which is a key condition of the treaty.
For their part, the Russian Federation was questioned by the US statement that bombers who could previously be equipped with nuclear missiles were converted into ordinary ones. Matthew Ferman, Professor of Texas University, said that Russian leaders, in view of everything, believe that the United States is more focused on stopping the Russian invasion of Ukraine and achieving a strategic defeat of the Russian Federation on the battlefield.
"However, Putin's statement about the new SNO formalizes much of what Russia has already done," he explained. "The treaty requires mutual inspections, but Russia did not allow them last fall. " On the basis of this, Washington has already accused Moscow of failure to comply with the treaty. In the short term, the influence of Putin's statement about withdrawal from the SNO will be more symbolic.
However, in the long run, the deterioration of US-Russian relations can cause new races of nuclear weapons. Todd Sehser, Professor at Virginia University, spoke about what could mean a way out of the SNO for Ukraine's military support. He noted that Baiden's administration was extremely cautious about the supply of weapons and gradually removed many taboos concerning Ukraine's military support.
According to him, in a sense, Putin's statement of SNO can be considered as a military response from the West. At the same time, only the Kremlin head knows its red lines, but everything indicates that the United States has not yet passed. Recall that the Russian Federation will not apply nuclear weapons if Ukraine liberate Crimea. The statement was made by the Prime Minister of the Netherlands.