Member-only story
Putin Has Pulled Out Of A Nuclear Arms Treaty, So Are We In Trouble?
Ironically, this may have exposed one of Russia’s key weaknesses.
On the anniversary of his moronic invasion of Ukraine, Putin made a speech that sent a shiver down the spines of world leaders. As translated by The Guardian, Putin stated, “They want to inflict a strategic defeat on us and claim our nuclear facilities. In this regard, I am forced to state that Russia is suspending its participation in the strategic offensive arms treaty.” And just like that, Russia abandoned a vital nuclear arms treaty that had kept international nuclear relations stable for over a decade. But this begs the question: What does this mean for Ukraine? What does this mean for the West? And possibly more importantly, what does this mean for Russia?
First of all, let’s clarify the original purpose of this nuclear treaty. Back in 2010, Barack Obama and the then-Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, signed the New START treaty. This legislation capped the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia were able to deploy. In this context, “deploy” meant to prepare nuclear weapons for launch at any time. The total cap of the treaty was set at 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads and a maximum of 700 long-range missiles and bombers. To ensure that both parties kept…
