The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a detailed statement marking the formal expiration of the New START Treaty, the last remaining bilateral arms control agreement limiting the strategic nuclear arsenals of Russia and the United States. The treaty officially ceased to exist on February 5, 2026, closing a chapter in nuclear arms control that had spanned more than 15 years and survived multiple periods of geopolitical tension.

Signed in Prague on April 8, 2010, by then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama, the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms-commonly known as New START-entered into force in February 2011. It capped each side’s deployed strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550 and placed limits on intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers. The agreement also included an extensive verification regime, providing inspections and data exchanges designed to ensure transparency and predictability between the two nuclear superpowers.

New START was extended once, in February 2021, for a five-year period, as allowed by a one-time extension clause in the treaty. That decision, taken early in the Biden administration, was widely seen as a stabilizing move amid deteriorating US-Russia relations. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry now argues that the conditions necessary for the treaty’s effective implementation eroded rapidly thereafter.

According to the statement, Russia suspended its participation in New START in February 2023, citing what it described as an “unsatisfactory state of affairs” regarding treaty implementation........

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