Russia Says New START Lapsed Over Washington's Refusal to Respond

Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, said that the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) was not extended because of Washington's position, according to RIA Novosti. The treaty, which capped each side at 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and 700 delivery systems, expired on February 5 and could only ever be extended once, leaving the two largest nuclear powers without legally binding limits.

The two sides tell different stories about why. Moscow had offered to keep observing the treaty's central limits for a year if Washington reciprocated, and Russian officials say the United States never formally responded. United States officials, by contrast, said the two governments agreed to operate in good faith and to observe the terms for at least six months while discussing a modernized agreement. What is not disputed is that no binding successor is in place.

The lapse removes a long-standing ceiling on strategic arsenals at a moment when other arms-control structures are already weakening. Without verification and caps, each side must assume the other may expand, which is the logic that drives an arms race rather than restrains one.