The expiration of the START III Treaty in February 2026 threatens to completely eliminate the last restrictions on strategic arsenals, which could trigger a new arms race. Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the current situation on the West’s destructive actions, pointing to the deployment of American nuclear weapons in Germany, the expansion of the missile defense system, and the US withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty). In response to these threats, Russia, as Putin emphasized, was forced to lift its moratorium on the deployment of such missiles, demonstrating the testing of the latest Oreshnik complex.

Despite its willingness to act harshly, Russia has expressed its desire to avoid further escalation. V. Putin has proposed a temporary solution: within a year of the expiration of the New START Treaty, Moscow is willing to voluntarily comply with the treaty’s quantitative restrictions. However, this step will depend on the actions of the United States. Ross

  • mathemachristian[he]@lemmy.ml
    4·
    3 hours ago

    This has been an ongoing theme with western reporting since before Yeltsin. Please challenge the information you got about the USSR from their main adversary. Evergreen quote:

    In the United States, for over a hundred years, the ruling interests tirelessly propagated anticommunism among the populace, until it became more like a religious orthodoxy than a political analysis. During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. […]

    from Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti