Russia says it awaits answer from US on expiring nuclear treaty

was still awaiting a formal answer from Washington on President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to jointly stick to the last remaining Russian-US arms control treaty, which expires in less than two months.

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New START, which runs out on Feb 5, caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of landand submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.

Mr Putin in September offered to voluntarily maintain for one year the limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons set out in the treaty, whose initials stand for the (New) Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Mr Trump said in October it sounded “like a good idea”.

“We have less than 100 days left before the expiry of New START,” said Mr Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council, which is like a modern-day politburo of Russia’s most powerful officials.