Biden: Putin’s suspension of arms treaty with US a ‘mistake’
Warsaw: President Joe Biden said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin made a “mistake” by suspending his country’s participation in the the last remaining U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control treaty.
In his first comments since Putin’s announcement Tuesday, Biden, who is in Poland to meet with NATO’s eastern flank allies, condemned the Russian decision to pull back from the treaty, known as New START.
In his state-of-the-nation address to the Russian people, Putin said Russia was withdrawing from the treaty because of U.S. support to Ukraine, and he accused the U.S. and its NATO allies of openly working for Russia’s destruction.
The decision to suspend Russian cooperation with the treaty’s nuclear warhead and missile inspections follows Moscow’s cancellation late last year of talks that had been intended to salvage an agreement that both sides have accused the other of violating.
