U.S. announces countermeasures in response to Russia’s violation of New START nuclear arms control treaty

The U.S. State Department announced that it has “adopted countermeasures in response to the Russian Federation’s ongoing violation of the New START Treaty,” a nuclear arms reduction agreement between the U.S. and Russia. 

The countermeasures adopted as of June 1 include:

• The U.S. will no longer share information about the status or location of its “treaty-accountable items,” including missiles and missile launchers, with the Russian Federation. The State Department says this measure has been taken in response to the fact that Russia has not shared such information since it suspended the treaty on February 28.
• The U.S. will revoke visas issued to Russian inspectors and will also stop issuing new visas, as well as revoking standing diplomatic clearance for Russian inspection airplanes.
• The U.S. will not provide Russia with telemetric information about launches from intercontinental or submarine-launched ballistic missiles. 

The State Department said in its announcement that it had notified Russia in advance of the countermeasures and “conveyed the United States’ desire and readiness to reverse the countermeasures and fully implement the treaty if Russia returns to compliance.” 

The START Treaty, which limits the number of nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles each side can have, was signed by then-Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama in 2010. In 2021, the two countries extended the treaty, but on February 21, 2023 President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would suspend its participation in the treaty, blaming Washington for making the “full functioning” of the treaty impossible.