Russia said on Wednesday that the parties to the New START nuclear arms control treaty are no longer bound by its obligations or related declarations, marking a further erosion of the last remaining legally binding framework limiting U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear forces.

In a statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it now assumes that the provisions of the treaty, including its core limits, no longer apply and that both sides are “in principle free to choose their next steps.”

Moscow said it had sought to extend the treaty and had made a last proposal on 22 September, when President Vladimir Putin publicly suggested keeping the caps on relevant weapons specified in New START in place for at least one year after the treaty’s termination.

The ministry said it had received no formal response from Washington through bilateral channels.

Russia said it intends to act “responsibly and in a balanced manner,” and will shape its policy on strategic offensive arms based on what it described as a thorough analysis of U.S. military policy and the broader strategic environment.

At the same time, the ministry warned it remains ready to take “decisive military-technical measures” to counter what it called potential additional threats to national security.

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Moscow said it is still open to political and diplomatic efforts aimed at stabilising the strategic situation, provided conditions for “equal and mutually beneficial dialogue” are created.

New START, which entered into force in 2011, limited the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads and delivery systems held by the United States and Russia. Its effective collapse has raised concerns among arms control experts about the risk of a new period of unregulated nuclear competition between the world’s two largest nuclear powers.

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