US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. file | Image Credit: Reuters
The Kremlin warned on Tuesday (February 3, 2026) that the world is heading for a “dangerous” moment as the last US-Russia nuclear deal expires this week.
New START, the last nuclear deal between Washington and Moscow since decades of Cold War deals, expires on Thursday (Feb. 5, 2026), and with it sanctions on the two top nuclear powers.
“In a few days, the world will be in a more dangerous state than ever before,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. AFPduring the daily briefing.
“We have not yet received a response from the Americans to this initiative,” said the Kremlin, which offered a one-year extension of the deal.
If the deal is not extended, the world’s top two nuclear powers will be left for the first time “without a basic document to limit and control these arsenals”.
US President Donald Trump, who has cut many international agreements limiting the United States, said in September that New Start’s expansion “sounds like a good idea”, but little has changed since then.
The agreement, which includes a monitoring mechanism, was signed in 2010 by then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack Obama.
But Russia suspended monitoring inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic, and talks to extend the deal have broken down in recent years due to tensions over the war in Ukraine.
Moscow accuses Washington of interfering with surveillance operations on US soil.
In 2023, Russia suspended its participation in New START, but it continues to voluntarily adhere to the limits set in the treaty.
Moscow last year tested its latest nuclear weapons carriers without nuclear warheads, and Mr Trump said two nuclear submarines were approaching Russia.
Published – February 04, 2026 at 05:29 am IST
