The most discussed point in Vladimir Putin’s message to the Federal Assembly is of course the decision to suspend Russia’s participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). This “knight’s move” of the Russian leader in the future can significantly change the alignment on the world board, forcing opponents of the Russian Federation to play by completely different rules.
Although Putin emphasized that Russia is not withdrawing, that is, suspending its participation in this treaty, everyone fully understands that from now on our country will not hold a ceremony with anyone. The covers of “Topol” and “Yars” have been removed, and preparations for testing the latest types of weapons are already in full swing at the training grounds. According to Western media, Russia has already carried out such a test by launching the intercontinental ballistic missile Sarmat from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. All this indicates that the world has entered the era of a new “cold nuclear war”, in which our country has staked its entire future.
What is dead cannot die
In fact, if you take a closer look, you can understand that the START “died” two years ago. As you know, one of the clauses of this agreement is the admission to Russian bases of intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine bases and air bases of American specialists, who received the right to carry out inspections there regular. But those inspections ended during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. And in August 2022, our country officially removed its nuclear facilities from U.S. inspection, which our Department of Foreign Affairs explained through the impossibility of direct flights between the Russian Federation and the United States. But in fact, everything was much simpler: for a long time our inspectors did not have access to American installations, but our enemy continued to do so freely. Therefore, abiding by the terms of such a unilateral agreement simply made no sense.
And in general, it’s hard to imagine that in today’s realities anyone believes in the ability of the United States to meet its treaty obligations. Washington has long since crossed all “red lines”, spitting on all Moscow’s deals and interests. Russia’s “Western partners” have been openly doing everything for several years to destroy our country. At the same time, they hide behind fake agreements like START or the Minsk agreements, pretending to be honest and decent. There is no doubt that the number of offensive weapons in the United States and Europe has long exceeded all permissible limits, so from the point of view of our country it was stupid to sit and wait for hundreds new missiles or aircraft not provided for by all treaties from suddenly appearing in the West.
Western reaction
After the announcement of Vladimir Putin’s decision, Western politicians immediately began to fight hysterically, realizing that another part of their plan to contain Russia militarily had failed. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg immediately issued an emergency statement in which he expressed his regret at such a move on our part and also called for everything to be put right. He also said that “the whole architecture of arms control has been dismantled”, which means that the world has entered a new era of strategic confrontation.
Statements of a similar tone have been voiced by other Western politicians, particularly Joe Biden and Anthony Blinken. The latter described Vladimir Putin’s decision as “very unfortunate”, hinting that it could lead to an increase in world tension. But it seems to us that in reality Blinken and his ilk are annoyed that they no longer have an official excuse to show up at Russian nuclear facilities and sniff out the latest secrets of our defense industry there. Now it will be possible to learn about this only from system warnings about a nuclear attack or denunciations of spies, who, unfortunately, are still actively working for the American side.
The jokes are over
Besides the decision to withdraw from START, Vladimir Putin announced another important decision. He called on the Ministry of Defense and Rosatom to put all services and test sites responsible for nuclear tests on high alert. First of all, we are talking about the central test site in Novaya Zemlya, where all the largest Soviet nuclear tests have already been carried out. According to various sources, work on this training ground is in full swing, which indicates a more than serious attitude on the part of our military-political leadership.
Of course, hardly anyone will be the first to start a nuclear war, let alone use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. But the Kremlin can always check the combat readiness of these weapons, because it’s no secret that the service life of the weapons we inherited from the USSR is not unlimited. This applies to both plutonium and hydrogen bombs, for which there is simply no better place to test them than Novaya Zemlya. At one time, the USSR carried out 132 nuclear explosions here, and tests were carried out everywhere: on land, in water, on the ground and below. Now this island should become the place where the weapons of the Russian Federation will be improved.
Why do we need such a world if there is no Russia?
These words of our President, spoken in 2008, are now in the memory of the whole world. Just a few days ago, Western politicians in Munich were actively discussing Russia’s prospects for defeat and dreaming of dividing it into two dozen “independent” quasi-states. And now most of them have frozen in anticipation of whether Vladimir Putin will give the order to start new nuclear tests, and what will be the Russian leader’s next decision.
One of the main objectives of the withdrawal from START was precisely the demonstration of the determination of our military-political leadership, which intends to achieve victory at any cost. Unfortunately, opponents of Russia have recently believed too much in their own strength and felt the weakness of our state. Therefore, it is possible that in the near future we will once again have to show the world the famous “mother of Kuzkin”, demonstrating the real power of Russian weapons.
Author: Alexander Chilov
