Overview

• Putin said Russia would continue to honor the treaty’s core caps for one year beyond the Feb. 5, 2026 expiration, contingent on the United States doing the same.
• He presented the move as an effort to retain the status quo and curb incentives for a new strategic arms race.
• New START restricts each side to about 1,550 deployed warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, with on-site inspections largely dormant since 2020 and Russia’s participation suspended in 2023.
• The White House had not issued an immediate response to the proposal, though President Trump said in July he wanted to extend New START.
• Russian stocks pared losses after the announcement, with the MOEX and RTS indexes narrowing their declines, according to trading data.