Russia To Continue Nukes Limits Under Expired New START If US Follows Suit
As the New START framework lapses, Moscow signals it will continue observing nuclear limits if Washington reciprocates, reopening debate over strategic stability and the future of US-Russia arms control. Image courtesy: RNA
Russia on Wednesday (February 11, 2026) assured the world it would continue to keep its nuclear missiles and warheads under the expired New START treaty limits, provided the US followed suit.
“Our position is that this moratorium on our side that was declared by the president is still in place, but only as long as the United States doesn’t exceed the said limits,” Lavrov told the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament.
The 2010 treaty expired on February 5 and with that, the constraints imposed by the disarmament treaties on both the US and Russia were removed for the first time in over five decades now.
US President Donald Trump had previously rejected his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that the two nations continue to voluntarily follow the limits imposed by the New START treaty for another year.
Trump had said then that he would prefer a “new, improved, and modernised” treaty instead of an extension of the old one.
Lavrov, addressing the Russian parliament on Wednesday (February 11), said, “we have reason to believe that the United States is in no hurry to deviate from these indicators, and for the foreseeable future these indicators will be observed.”
He did not provide details of how Russia arrived at that conclusion, but reiterated that Russia wanted to start a “strategic dialogue” with the US, saying it was “long overdue”.
The ending of the New START treaty has triggered concerns globally of a three-way arms race involving the US, Russia, and China, which has far lesser number of nuclear warheads than the other two but is fast arming itself.
Trump’s call to let the New START Treaty expire and free the nation of the constraints imposed by it allows the US to build the nuclear stockpile in preparation for any new nuclear threat environment posed by Russia and China separately or combined.
Russia’s current positioning on voluntarily maintaining the nuclear arsenal limits pits itself as a more responsible nation than the US if the latter doesn’t follow suit.
Yet, the standpoint provides Russia the freedom to amass nuclear systems that does not fall within the New START treaty.
Moreover, Russia’s economic difficulties due to the over four-year Ukraine war could deter it from pursuing the Cold War-era type arms race with the US, even if it means matching capabilities.
