Foreign Ministry statement on the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms

On August 8, 2022, the Russian Federation officially notified the United States, through diplomatic channels, of its decision to temporarily exempt the inspection activities from the facilities subject to inspection under the Treaty. This exemption includes the appropriate facilities at which exhibitions may be conducted under the Treaty.

These actions are envisaged in item 5 of Section 1 of Part Five of the Protocol to the Treaty. They may be taken in exceptional cases, and for purposes not inconsistent with the Treaty. The Russian Federation is compelled to resort to this measure due to Washington’s stubborn striving to achieve, without prior arrangement, the resetting of inspection activities on conditions that do not take into account existing realities and are creating unilateral advantages for the United States, and are de facto depriving the Russian Federation of the right to conduct inspections on American territory.

Our goal is to bring an end to this unacceptable situation and ensure the functioning of all mechanisms in the Treaty in strict conformity with the principles of parity and equality of the parties, as was implied when it was agreed upon and entered into force. At present, these principles are not being observed. Thus, as a result of the US-inspired unilateral anti-Russia restrictions, normal airflights between Russia and the US have been suspended while the air space over US ally and partner countries is closed to Russian aircraft carrying Russian groups of inspectors to ports of entry on American territory. At the same time, there are no similar restrictions for US inspectors coming to Russia. The Foreign Ministry has raised this question before the countries concerned but has received no answer. Additional difficulties for Russian inspectors and Russian flight crews have been created – again as part of the Washington-inspired unilateral anti-Russia restrictions – through tougher visa requirements in transit countries along potential routes. American inspectors or flight crews are not encountering these difficulties. These and other issues known to the US, on which the parties exchange information via the appropriate channels, must be resolved. Without this, it would be premature to resume inspection activities under the Treaty, as the United States insists.

We hope to continue close cooperation with the American side. We have always advocated and continue to advocate a discussion on the resumption of inspection activities under the Treaty from a position of practical reality. This primarily includes the need to consider the epidemiological situation related to COVID-19 that remains complicated. At this time, there is no obvious indication of a decline in the scale of the coronavirus pandemic or a reduction in the related risks. We have noted the resumed growth rate of the incidence of the disease in the United States, where over 120,000 new COVID-19 cases and 300-400 deaths are recorded every day. In this context, Russia’s main priority is to maintain the health and safety of Russian inspectors and flight crews during any inspection on US territory. The same approach applies to American of inspectors on Russian Federation territory.

We believe that under the circumstances, the parties need to abandon any deliberate, counterproductive attempts to artificially expedite the resumption of inspection activities under the Treaty and focus on the thorough analysis of the problems in this area. The successful resolution of these problems would make it possible to return to the full application of the verification mechanisms under the Treaty.

We would like to emphasise that the measures we have adopted are temporary. Russia is fully committed to the observance of the provisions of the Treaty, something we consider to be a very important instrument in maintaining international security and stability. We highly value its unique role in ensuring the necessary transparency and predictability in relations between Russia and the United States in the critical area of nuclear missiles. After the problems related to the resumption of inspections under the Treaty are resolved, we will immediately cancel these exemptions to the inspections, and we will conduct these activities in full again. We believe that this would meet the interests of both Moscow and Washington. We expect the US to adopt a similar approach.