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Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov's answer to a question from Kommersant newspaper regarding the New START treaty

17 March 2023 09:20
481-17-03-2023

Question: The Department of State said that Russia's move to suspend its participation in the New START treaty is legally invalid. What will be the Foreign Ministry's comment regarding this statement?

Sergey Ryabkov: We have taken note of the insinuations the United States Department of State has been spreading, alleging that Russia's decision to suspend the New START treaty was invalid in terms of international law.

We view media diversions of this kind as part of Washington's political propaganda campaign designed to force Russia to revive the New START framework and ensure that the United States retains the ability to monitor our strategic arsenals without any impediments. If there are still those in Washington who fail to realise the futility of these efforts, we are ready to reiterate that this option is completely out of the question considering the total hybrid war the US-led West is waging against our country.

We have set forth our legal case in detail on multiple occasions. In this context, we can refer you, among other things, to the February 21, 2023, Foreign Ministry statement. The legal logic here is rather obvious. In view of the reasons Russia has put forth, we have come to the conclusion that the United States committed a material breach of the New START treaty. Under the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of the Treaties, this entitles Russia to suspend the New START treaty. The far-fetched arguments put forward by the US Department of State lawyers who are simply denying the obvious cannot change the actual state of affairs.

We would also like to remind the United States that President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed the Federal Law Suspending the New START, and it entered into force on February 28, 2023. From that moment, it became binding for all relevant Russian agencies.

If the United States has a genuine interest in reviving the New START treaty and, in general, working with us on arms control, it must start by giving up on its vain fantasies of inflicting a "strategic defeat" on Russia and recognise that there is no alternative to taking into consideration Russia's security interests.