Russia welcomes US proposal of five-year extension to nuclear arms reduction treaty

Russia on January 22 not only welcomed the proposal by the United States President Joe Biden of a five-year extension to the New START arms treaty with Moscow. However, reportedly, Kremlin has also mentioned that it wanted to see the concrete proposals from Washington. 

This came after White House press secretary on January 21 said that Biden would seek an extension of the last remaining nuclear reduction treaty between both the countries but also pledged to pressure Moscow in other aspects. Hence, to this end, Russian President Vladimir Putin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow stands with the US.

“We can only welcome political will to extend the document,” Peskov  reportedly said. “But all will depend on the details of the proposal.”

Russia and the United States signed the New START with the formal name of Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms on April 8, 2010, in Prague and entered into force on February 5, 2011.  It limits both the nations to have 1,550 nuclear warheads each and is set to expire on February 5 after the negotiations halted under former US President Donald Trump.

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‘Will hold Russia to account’, says Psaki

Further, the White House press secretary Jen Psaki has also said that the new intelligence chief Avril Haines would also initiate an investigation into Russia’s alleged poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Psaki also said that the United States would also investigate the bounties that were reportedly paid by the Russian government to extremists in  Afghanistan who killed the American troops.

Psaki told the reporters, “Even as we work with Russia to advance U.S. interests, so too we work to hold Russia to account for its reckless and adversarial actions. "

She added, "And to this end, the President is also issuing a tasking to the intelligence community for its full assessment of the SolarWinds cyber breach, Russian interference in the 2020 election, its use of chemical weapons against opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and the alleged bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.”

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