Moscow’s nuclear pact offer still stands – Medvedev

New START, the only remaining nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and the US, is set to expire this week

Russia’s offer to extend the last major nuclear arms agreement with the US, the New START treaty, for one more year remains valid, former President Dmitry Medvedev has stated. The agreement is set to expire later this week. 

Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, told reporters on Monday that Moscow’s proposal “remains on the table, and the treaty has not even expired yet, and if the American side wants to extend it, then this can be done.”

He warned that if the New START treaty lapses later this week, it would mark the first time since 1972 that there are no legal limitations on strategic weapons between the two nuclear powers.

The treaty, signed by Medvedev and then-US President Barack Obama in 2010, caps each side at 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads. Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a one-year extension of its core limits last September, but the Kremlin has repeatedly stated it has received no substantive response from the US.

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Last week, Medvedev framed the potential collapse of the treaty as a dangerous turning point. In an interview with Kommersant, he stated that “the world could enter a dangerous new phase of uncertainty” and warned that more countries are likely to pursue nuclear weapons due to global instability, viewing them as the only proven guarantor of sovereignty.

Medvedev’s warning comes as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists recently moved its symbolic ‘Doomsday Clock’ forward to 85 seconds to midnight. The scientists cited the impending expiration of New START and a “full-blown arms race” as key reasons, urging Russia and the US to resume dialogue.