Overview

• Russia says it will keep to New START caps for one year after February 5, 2026 only if the United States mirrors the limits and avoids steps that erode deterrent parity.
• Putin ordered agencies to scrutinize U.S. strategic forces, missile-defense plans and possible space-based deployments, warning of technical-military responses to destabilizing actions.
• Moscow suspended application of the treaty in February 2023, halting on-site inspections and data exchanges that previously supported compliance confidence.
• The United States had not issued an official response and no substantive negotiations to implement the proposal had been reported at the time of publication, according to Reuters and local reports.
• New START remains the last bilateral strategic arms-limit framework, capping each side at 1,550 deployed warheads and 700 deployed delivery systems.