Context:

The Russian lower house of Parliament, the Duma, ratified the extension of the new START nuclear treaty with the US, which is now expected to last until 2026.

The New START treaty

• The New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), was signed in 2010 by former US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart at the time, Dmitry Medvedev.
• The treaty was to replace the 1991 START treaty.
• The treaty limits each party to 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) or deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), 1,550 nuclear warheads on deployed ICBMs, and SLBMs, and 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers.
• It also envisions a rigorous inspection regime to verify compliance.

Overview

• Signed: 8 April 2010
• Entered into Force: 5 February 2011
• Duration: Ten-year duration with option to extend for no more than five years
• Parties: United States, Russian Federation.

Some Other Russia- U.S arms treaties

SALT I

Begun in November 1969, by May 1972, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) had produced both the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, which limited strategic missile defenses to 200 interceptors each, and the Interim Agreement, an executive agreement that capped U.S. and Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) and submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) forces.

SALT II

SALT II, signed in June 1979, limited U.S. and Soviet ICBM, SLBM, and strategic bomber-based nuclear forces to 2,250 delivery vehicles (defined as an ICBM silo, an SLBM launch tube, or a heavy bomber) and placed a variety of other restrictions on deployed strategic nuclear forces.

START I, II, and III

The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), required the United States and the Soviet Union to reduce their deployed strategic arsenals.

SORT (Moscow Treaty)

On May 24, 2002, Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin signed the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT or Moscow Treaty) under which the United States and Russia reduced their strategic arsenals to 1,700-2,200 warheads each