During his keynote appearance at the Valdai Discussion Club on Oct. 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin answered a question on whether he thinks arms control as it has been practiced since the 1960s has a future, given the uncertain status of New START and earlier U.S. withdrawals from arms control treaties. “I think that the world will have no future unless limits are put on the arms race,” he said at the outset. After giving a thumbnail sketch of the U.S. withdrawals from the ABM and INF Treaties, and stating that the U.S. was “honest” in the first case, but made “excuses” of alleged Russian violations in the second, Putin highlighted the distrust that now exists between Washington and Moscow on these matters. Then he moved on to the current situation with New START, or START-3 as the Russians call it.
“Now, START-3. We took account of all the problems when we were negotiating these issues,” Putin continued. “Only one thing was left out. It is what Russia acquired in response to the United States withdrawing from the ABM Treaty. Precisely in response to the withdrawal,” he said, referring to Russia’s new generation of strategic weapons. “Indeed, neither the United States nor other countries have access to such weapons, although they are working on it, and someday they will have them as well. They are telling us, ‘You have it, we do not, so we must take this into account.’ Well, we do not mind, let us take it into account — both regarding the number of carriers and the number of warheads. We do not mind.”
