Russia boosts offer to extend US arms pact

Bloomberg

Russia bolstered its offer to the US for a one-year extension to their last remaining nuclear arms treaty on Tuesday by saying it’s ready to freeze its current arsenal.
President Donald Trump’s administration rejected a Russian proposal to prolong the New START treaty for 12 months without conditions before it
expires in February. It said doing so without capping the number of nuclear warheads that aren’t covered by the strategic weapons pact was a “non-starter.”
The Foreign Ministry in Moscow said it hasn’t received
a formal reply to President Vladimir Putin’s offer made in a televised meeting with his Security Council. Russia is willing to commit to a nuclear freeze during the extension as long as the US pledges not to make any new demands, the ministry said in a statement. It didn’t mention strict new verification that Washington has stipulated.
The negotiations are taking place amid the US presidential election campaign as the clock ticks down to the expiry of New START, which limits the nuclear arsenals of the two former Cold War adversaries. Trump’s Democratic rival in the November 3 election, Joe Biden, supports an extension of the 2010 pact, which has an option of renewal for up to 5 years.
The accord put limits on the number of strategic nuclear weapons, such as submarine-launched missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles. But it didn’t limit many other types of nuclear warheads, and Trump administration officials had sought to broaden its terms before agreeing to an extension.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the US is demanding a return to “intrusive” inspections as well as a freeze on the entire nuclear arsenal — including smaller tactical weapons that according to Washington account for 55% of Russian nuclear capabilities.
“Russia, as a responsible player, wants to extend the treaty very much,” said Alexander Dynkin, president of the Institute of World Economy.