Russia has closed its facilities for inspections under the Nuclear Missile Limitation Treaty with the United States. • Meduza • RIMA

Russia has closed its facilities for inspections under the Nuclear Missile Limitation Treaty with the United States.

Russia has notified the United States that it is temporarily withdrawing from inspection activities its facilities that are subject to inspections under the Russian-American Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty (START, or START-3). This was announced by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

This decision was made because of Washington's desire to achieve a restart of inspection activities on conditions that effectively deprive Russia of the right to conduct inspections on American soil, the agency said.

Thus, as a result of the anti-Russian unilateral restrictive measures taken at the suggestion of Washington, normal air traffic between Russia and the United States was interrupted, and the airspace of states that are allies and partners of the United States is closed to Russian aircraft delivering Russian inspection teams to points of entry on American territory. At the same time, there are no similar obstacles to the arrival of American inspectors in Russia.

Another reason for the withdrawal of Russian facilities from inspections is the coronavirus, according to the Foreign Ministry. The ministry noted "a renewed increase in the incidence rate in the United States" and said it prioritized the health of Russian inspectors in the United States and American inspectors in Russia.

The decision on inspections does not contradict START and is temporary. It will be canceled "after the resolution of existing problematic issues related to the resumption of inspection activities," the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.

The START between Russia and the United States limits the number of nuclear warheads on each side to 1,550, and the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles, ballistic missiles on submarines and heavy bombers - to 700. The agreement was signed in 2010, in 2021 it was extended for another five years .
START allows Russia and the United States to inspect, in particular, the bases of intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine bases and air bases of each other. In 2020, such inspections were stopped due to the pandemic; as of the end of May 2022, they have not yet been resumed .
The US and EU closed the skies to Russian aircraft in early March 2022, shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.