START Treaty: US Stops Sharing Nuclear Arms Data With Russia

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Facts

  • The White House said Tuesday it would cease exchanging with Russia some data on its nuclear forces after Moscow did the same. The US called it a response to Russia suspending participation in the New START nuclear arms treaty, which limits the pair's stockpiles of strategic nuclear weapons.1
  • Although Russian Pres. Putin has not formally withdrawn from the treaty, his suspension of participation announced in February jeopardizes the last major component of US-Russian nuclear arms control.2
  • A former senior Biden admin. official reportedly, and vice president of the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative, stated, "Why should Russia continue to benefit from transparency measures when it is denying them to the United States?" Others said it was important to drive home the costs of leaving the treaty to Moscow.3
  • The treaty, signed in 2010 by then-Pres. Barack Obama and Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads, 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.4
  • The COVID pandemic paused on-site inspections. Discussions about resuming them were supposed to have taken place in Nov. 2022, but Russia abruptly called them off, citing US support for Ukraine.5
  • Some arms control advocates expressed concern that the agreement could lead to the gradual dismantling of the arms control framework that has regulated nuclear competition between Washington and Moscow for decades.3

Sources: 1Reuters, 2Al Jazeera, 3Wall Street Journal, 4Associated Press, and 5FOX News.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Vox. Moscow's threat to suspend the New Start Treaty is a violation of numerous provisions of the agreement, as well as an attempt to divide American opinion over the war in Ukraine by raising the specter of nuclear Armageddon. The US must stay firm with the Russians and encourage them to return to compliance with the treaty.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by TASS. Russia has suspended its participation in the New Start Treaty but remains committed to the principle that a nuclear war is unacceptable. Before returning to the discussion of compliance with the treaty, however, Russia wants to understand how the arsenals of not only the US but also other NATO nuclear weapons powers — i.e. the UK and France — will be accounted for by it.

Predictions