Overview

• Speaking in Tajikistan, Putin said an arms race is already underway and that Russia continues developing and testing new-generation nuclear arms.
• Moscow says it will keep New START’s warhead limits if Washington does the same, but the United States has not formally agreed.
• The treaty, the last major U.S.-Russia arms-control pact, runs until February 2026 and caps each side at 1,550 deployed warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers.
• Putin warned Russia would conduct a nuclear test only if other states test first, repeating a message he raised earlier in the week.
• Security experts caution that any nuclear test by one country could prompt others to follow and further raise geopolitical tensions.