Russian lawmakers have taken the first step toward suspending the country's participation in the New START nuclear weapons treaty with parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, unanimously approving the move announced a day earlier by President Vladimir Putin.

The treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms accord between the two superpowers, restricts each nation to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles and strategic bombers.

Both sides have blamed the other for the breakdown of the pact, which has further raised concerns over global security during Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The vote by Russian lawmakers on February 22 came less than 24 hours after Putin announced the move in his state-of-the-nation address to the parliament. Russian parliament's upper chamber, the Federation Council, is expected to approve the bill later in the day, after which Putin will sign it into law.

The outcome of the vote was never in doubt with State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin saying just before voting began that ballots against the move "are not even expected."

Several Russian lawmakers echoed Putin's rhetoric blaming Washington for breaking the treaty, with former President Dmitry Medvedev, currently the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, saying the move was "long overdue" as the United States and NATO have "declared war" on Russia.

Speaking the same day as Putin's address, U.S. President Joe Biden gave a strong and emotional response in the Polish capital, Warsaw, vowing to continue supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia's full-scale invasion, which was launched on February 24 last year.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, called Putin's move "deeply unfortunate and irresponsible."

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said he regretted Putin's decision and expressed hopes that Moscow will reconsider it, adding that with the move "the whole arms control architecture has been dismantled."

The New START treaty was signed in 2010. In February 2021, just days before the New START was due to expire, Moscow and Washington agreed to extend it for another five years.

But in August last year, Russia informed the United States of a freeze on U.S. inspections of its nuclear weapons under the treaty, claiming Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its ongoing invasion of Ukraine along with visa restrictions had hampered similar inspections of U.S. facilities by Russian monitors.

New talks between Moscow and Washington on the treaty were scheduled for last November but Russia unilaterally called them off at the last moment.

Source RFE rl 

BDST: 1653 HRS, FEB 22, 2023
MSK