Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday the suspension of his country’s participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), a key agreement for Russia. surround And nuclear disarmament related to United States of America And Russia third version is valid (new beginning anyone START III).
These are the keys to the deal in an attempt to avoid a nuclear hekatomb due to the clash of the two main atomic powers:
Origin
It started with epic BEGINNINGAn idea proposed by the US president ronald reagan With the intention of limiting a possible nuclear attack between the two main powers of the Cold War, which has accumulated a large atomic arsenal since the 1930s and is on the verge of a nuclear war with the United States. Cuban missile crisis 1962. The first START was finally signed. George Bush And Mikhail Gorbachev On July 31, 1991, five months before the collapse of the country. Soviet UnionAlthough not effective until December 1994, the agreement, which was in effect until 2009, limited both countries’ nuclear warheads to 6,000 units.
HE START II Negotiations began before the previous one came into force and were signed by Bush and Boris Yeltsin on January 3, 1993, which sought to reduce the maximum number of warheads to 3,500, in addition to banning the use of warheads. intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) between multiple heads. This agreement was never implemented. It was approved by the US Senate, but was repeatedly blocked in the Russian Duma to protest US military operations in Iraq and Kosovo and NATO’s expansion into eastern countries. In April 2000, the Duma finally gave its approval, since START II was rendered useless as the SORT agreement (signed by George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin) promised to limit it to 2,200 nuclear heads each. .
more assertive borders
The new START or START III was signed in Prague on 8 April 2010 by the then President of Russia. Dmitry Medvedevand American, barack obamaFor the purpose of “reset” ties between both powers and promoted more ambitious weapon limits than previous agreements.
He set the limit 1,550 nuclear warheads opened each and thought audits and guarantees of transparency so that each country can verify that the other is doing its part. The US State Department collects data supporting this compliance on its website for September 2022: 1,420 warheads by the US and 1,549 warheads for Russia. Although these figures represent a cut of about 30% compared to the previous limit, they are enough to destroy the world many times over.
However, last January, the Government Joe Biden accused Moscow of violating the agreed terms, veto the presence of inspectors in August 2022 A full military offensive on its territory and already in Ukraine, after a theoretical return to normal after a stage of paralysis due to the Kovid-19 epidemic. Moscow claimed that Washington blocked visits to its facilities, which the White House denied.
The agreement was valid for 10 years, and despite the criticisms between the two powers in recent years, they had technically agreed to extend these commitments until February 2026. agreement, but Russia deferred the meeting to death, accusing the United States of “toxicity and hostility”.
last agreement in force
START III is the last arms control agreement still in effect between the two nuclear powers. In 2019, Moscow and Washington broke the historic agreement on F.Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) was signed by Reagan and Gorbachev in 1989 to limit the use of both conventional and nuclear medium-range missiles.
in 2020 donald trump withdrawn the USA Open Skies Treaty, the signatory countries in Europe allow unarmed surveillance flights over the post-Soviet space and North America. Trump has claimed that Russia has repeatedly violated the agreement, Moscow denied this and eventually withdrew.
A hypothetical break of the new START means that the arsenals of the two largest nuclear powers in the world will not have them. unlimited For the first time since the 1970s, Putin has limited himself to “suspending participation” by Russia, claiming for now that this is not “abandonment”.
According to the 2022 report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) 12,705 nuclear weapons3,732 were deployed (1,744 from the USA, 1,588 from Russia, 120 from the UK and 280 from France). Besides these four countries, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea also have warheads.