While Moscow is pursuing extension of the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty, scheduled to expire this coming Feb. 3, it is also sharpening the claws of its own deterrent capability by continuing to upgrade its strategic nuclear systems and participating in joint exercises with China.
The Russian Embassy in Washington issued a statement, on the 10th anniversary of the treaty’s ratification by the U.S. Senate, calling on the U.S. to extend the New START by five more years. “As things stay now, the Treaty is doomed to expire on February 5, 2021. President Vladimir Putin’s proposal from December 2019 to extend it for 5 years without preconditions still stands. The extension will give Russia and the U.S. time to find common ground on the ways to adopt the arms control regime to today’s security environment,” the Embassy stated. “We call the U.S. side to use what little time we have left till February 5 to save New START for the benefit of our two countries and the whole world,” the comment said. https://washington.mid.ru/en/press-centre/news/embassy_comment_on_the_10th_anniversary_of_the_new_start_treaty_ratification_by_the_u_s_senate/
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry is continuing the slow but sure process of equipping ICBM units with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle. A source in the defense industry told TASS this morning that the first unit equipped with Avangard will be up to full strength of six launchers by the end of 2021. The first two Avangard systems were put on alert in December 2019 and, according to TASS, two more should be on alert by the end of this month.
