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Akbar Novruz

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Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday that for the first time in 54 years, Moscow and the United States are left with no treaty on nuclear arms control, Azernews reports.

"That's it. For the first time since 1972, Russia (the former USSR) and the US have no treaty limiting strategic nuclear forces. SALT 1, SALT 2, START I, START II, SORT, New START – all in the past," he wrote in a post on X.

The New START treaty, which was signed by Medvedev and former US President Barack Obama in 2010, expires on February 5 and cannot be extended further. While both sides expressed a wish to create a new agreement, nothing concrete has been done since Russia suspended its participation in the New START treaty over Washington's support for Ukraine.

Under its provisions, the two countries committed to reducing strategic nuclear forces and opened the door to extensive on-site inspections to verify compliance.

The pact between Washington and Moscow, formally known as the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, restricted each side to no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads on no more than 700 missiles and bombers — deployed and ready for use.

It was originally supposed to expire in 2021 but was extended for five more years. The pact also envisioned sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance, but these ended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.

In February 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended Moscow’s participation, saying the Kremlin could not allow US inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal.

At the same time, the Kremlin emphasised it was not withdrawing from the pact altogether, pledging to respect its caps on nuclear weapons.

In September 2025 Putin again declared his readiness to adhere to nuclear arms limits for one more year and urged Washington to follow suit.