START Treaty at risk 2020/U.S. Navy ships operate in Russia's Barents Sea for first time since 1980s
U.S. Navy ships operate in Russia's Barents Sea for first time since 1980s
Military tensions between the U.S. and Russia remain high six years after Russia annexed Crimea from neighboring Ukraine.
MOSCOW — Four U.S. Navy ships entered the Barents Sea off Russia's northwestern Arctic coast Monday — the first time U.S. warships have operated in the area since the 1980s — according to a statement Monday from the Navy's 6th Fleet.
Although it is in international waters, the Barents Sea is Russia's naval backyard. The Northern Fleet, the heart of the Russian navy, is anchored in Severomorsk — tucked in a bay off the Barents Sea.
SNIP
The two sides are locked in disagreement over the future of nuclear arms control, with a major bilateral arms control treaty, New START, set to expire early in 2021. A decision on extending the treaty is required this year.
In its statement Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry noted that the U.S. destroyers that entered the Barents Sea — the Porter, the Donald Cook and the Roosevelt — are armed with missile defense systems.
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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1199281
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Well gee, sanctions lifted, NATO abandoned & now Trump will have the discretion to Continue or End the START Treaty.
I don't know if he has the sole power to end the treaty
Is this Russia Barents Sea dust up a manufactured set-up for Trump & Putin to 'negotiate' an end to START?
What is his endgame with this show of force?
Maybe I'm trying to hard to predict Vlad's next move, just in case Trump really is defeated in Nov.
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START TREATY 1991
31 July 1991
Background. The U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as START I, was signed 31 July 1991 by U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. START I was the first treaty to provide for deep reductions of U.S. and Soviet/Russian strategic nuclear weapons
NEW START TREATY 2010
On 8 April 2010 in Prague, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dimitri Medvedev signed the New START Treaty, and Protocol.
2009
Negotiations on a new START Treaty began on 18 May in Moscow and continued throughout the year.
https://www.nti.org/learn/treaties-and-regimes/treaties-between-united-states-america-and-union-soviet-socialist-republics-strategic-offensive-reductions-start-i-start-ii/
Right to Withdraw
2011
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared in front of the State Duma that if the United States further pursues the deployment of an anti-missile shield near Russian border,
it might "force us to use the article of the treaty that provides for the withdrawal of a state that feels violated in terms of security." Lavrov is referring to Article 14, which gives both countries a right to withdraw from the agreement.
Bets on Trump allowing a withdrawal from START before he leaves Office, thus upending decades of negotiations?