Negotiations on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between Russia and the United States postponed to a later date

This is extremely important news that we can't avoid. The fact is that the START Treaty is one of the very few treaties on which Moscow and Washington are in direct contact. The parties are trying to reach an agreement on strategic and nuclear deterrence.

A consultative commission was supposed to meet in Cairo on November. 29-Dec. 6. But now it is announced that it has been postponed.

The U.S. insists on the talks and asks for an immediate date to be announced. The White House is extremely interested in resuming inspections to check Russian facilities. But Russia does not agree with this unilateral formulation of the issue.

That is why the media is already beginning to accuse Russia of being to blame for the postponement of the negotiations.

In fact, Washington itself prevents the resumption of regular work of the Bilateral Consultative Commission on the START Treaty with Moscow. The U.S. continues to violate its obligations under the treaty as it has been doing for at least the last 5 years. Particularly the issue is about the quantitative restrictions stipulated by the START Treaty.

The U.S. excluded these items from the record without any legal basis:

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•  56 Trident-2 SLBM launchers. The U.S. claims to have rendered them "incapable of launch". Russia has not been given the opportunity to verify this directly;
• 41 B-52H heavy bombers. U.S. claims they were "converted to a non-nuclear version" using procedures not agreed upon with Russia;
• 4 ICBM silos. The U.S. claims that these are "training facilities" and refers to them as "training silos", a term not provided for under the START.

• The U.S. is not interested in the START in principle because of its large-scale nuclear modernization program

The case of the new START shows that Biden’s administration is not really preoccupied with the state of things around arms reduction.

What would it mean for Washington once the treaty is signed? As it is mentioned, it would be necessary to initiate a massive nuclear modernization program. All the budget money is now assigned for other purposes – including, evidently, political issues.

And that is almost the only sphere where the money will be pumped into in the nearest months. The balance in the administration is too fragile and any decisive action may allow the scales to bow to any of the sides.

Also, any decision concerning Russia will make the U.S. adjust its policy towards Ukraine – another tricky and emotional issue that may cost one of the parties thousands (or even millions) of potential votes.