A senior Biden administration official told The New York Times that “right now it’s almost impossible to imagine” the US and Russia negotiating a replacement for New START — the last remaining arms control treaty between the two powers — before it expires.
New START limits the number of missiles, bombers, and warheads the US and Russia can have deployed. President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to extend the treaty for five years back in January 2021. US and Russian officials had held arms control talks since then, but they fell apart after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The US cut off arms control talks with Russia after the February 24 invasion. Russian officials have said they are open to resuming them, but the Biden administration appears to have abandoned diplomacy with Russia altogether. Biden has shown no interest in speaking with Putin, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken hasn’t talked with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Since February 15.
The state of arms control agreements between the US and Russia has looked bleak in recent years. In 2019, the Trump administration withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which banned land-based short and medium-range ballistic missiles. The US withdrew from the INF over alleged Russian violations, but little was done to try to rectify the issues.
The Trump administration also pulled out of the Open Skies treaty in 2020, which allowed unarmed surveillance flights over participating countries. Russia tried to salvage Open Skies and hoped the Biden administration would return to the treaty. But the Biden administration told Russia it wouldn’t rejoin Open Skies, and Moscow later withdrew.
The lack of arms control between the world’s largest nuclear powers likely means the US will follow through on its plan to modernize each triad of its nuclear arsenal, which could cost up to $1.5 trillion. As of September 2020, the US nuclear stockpile consists of about 5,750 warheads, including 3,750 active warheads and 2,000 retired ones. Russia’s nuclear stockpile is estimated to be about 6,200 warheads. Together, the two powers possess roughly 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons.
As Caitlin Johnstone commented: “use your words, boys!” I imagine the Admin stamping a foot, saying, “no, no those!!!! I’d rather punch them in the nose! Words are too hard!!”
Seems a shame, we should be able to whittle our stockpile down to 1000 weapons or so more than enough to destroy whomever we want to destroy. Arms reductions are in our interest.
Basic and sound logic…!
So the US leaders have not spoken to the Russian since well before the war broke out.
That does explain how the war broke out.
President George W. Bush pulled us out of the ABM treaty. So, it would appear that exiting the START treaty would be the final nail in the coffin(s).
US Official (s) do not have any Imaginations…!
They’ve got a great imagination when it comes to dreaming of defeating Russia militarily.
Why would Russia trust anything U.S. diplomats would agree to in an arms control negotiation? As former Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFoul said during the Munk debate with Mearsheimer and Walt, “Our diplomats lie all the time.”
US diplomacy is an oxymoron.
Of course not. Why would they? We the childrem, are
supposec to believe that Russia might be in trouble im Ukraine, chasing the disintegrating army. Army forced to fight without retreating, losing hundreds to thousands people a day. Russia will just wsnt to mill itself, out of sheer desparation use atomic weapons?
It is the other way around. We are planning to go nuclear when our project Ukraine falters. We cannot lose, remember! Putin cannot even be seen as winning, nevrr mind win!
How to dk it? Obviously. Go for nuke maximum. Else no second chance.
A woke leadership at all the highest levels playing war, and goading esch other into taking the risk? What can go wrong — we always win in movies!