Russia sees bleak prospects for expiring nuclear arms pact

6/6/2025 16:17

Russia sees little chance of saving its last nuclear accord with the United States, due to expire in eight months, given the "ruined" state of relations with Washington, its top arms control official said in an interview published on Friday.



Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also told TASS news agency that President Donald Trump's proposed Golden Dome missile defence project was a "deeply destabilising" factor creating formidable new obstacles to arms control.



His comments were among Moscow's bleakest yet about the prospects for the New START agreement, the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between the two countries, which caps the number of strategic warheads that each side can deploy.



President Vladimir Putin in 2023 suspended Russian participation in New START, blaming U.S. support for Ukraine, although he said that Russia would remain within the treaty's limits on warheads, missiles and heavy bomber planes.



But if the treaty is not extended or replaced after it expires on February 5 next year, security experts fear it could fuel a new arms race at a time of acute international tension over the conflict in Ukraine, which both Putin and Trump have said could lead to World War Three.