Russia is ready for a new world with no nuclear limits, minister says

Russia says it is prepared for a post–arms control era as the New START nuclear treaty with the United States is set to expire without a last-minute deal. A senior Russian official warned that the end of the pact would leave the world’s two largest nuclear powers without limits for the first time in decades.

Guy Faulconbridge and Stephen Coates/Reuters

February 3, 2026

Russia is ready for a new world with no nuclear limits, minister says

FILE PHOTO: A Tu-160 heavy strategic bomber flies during the Victory Day parade above Red Square in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2015.

Grigory Dukor/Reuters

FILE PHOTO: A Tu-160 heavy strategic bomber flies during the Victory Day parade above Red Square in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2015.

Russia is ready for the new reality of a world with no nuclear arms control limits after the New START treaty expires later this week, Russia's point man for arms control said on Tuesday.

Unless Moscow and Washington reach a last-minute bilateral understanding of some kind, the New START treaty, signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, will expire on February 5.

"The lack of an answer is also an answer," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by state news agency TASS as saying in Beijing on the absence of a response from Washington on Russian proposals to extend the limits of New START.

Russia was ready for the new reality of the world's two largest nuclear powers having no limits for the first time in decades, Ryabkov said.

He also said Russia supported China's position on arms control.

On Iran, he said the United States' proposals to Iran were tantamount to ultimatums.

He said that if the U.S. pumped lots of missile defence systems onto Greenland then Russia would have to take compensatory measures in its military sphere.

-Guy Faulconbridge and Stephen Coates/Reuters