Far from Warsaw, Russia has signaled the possibility of reaching a compromise on a key US nuclear weapons deal, the BBC reports. The decision to suspend participation in the “New Start” contract “may be revoked,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a Telegram message.

Sergey LavrovPhoto: Oleksandr Zemlanychenko / AP – The Associated Press / Profimedia

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday that Russia is suspending its participation in the “New SNO” treaty, the last remaining treaty between Moscow and Washington that limits the two countries’ nuclear arsenals, Reuters reported.

“Therefore, I am forced to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty,” he said during a wide-ranging speech in the Russian parliament on Tuesday.

Passed in 2010 and active the following year, New Start was intended to prevent nuclear war. It was the last nuclear weapons deal between the two former Cold War rivals.

American officials already believed that Moscow was not abiding by the pact. Russia’s new statement makes the same accusation against Washington.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Russia’s main goal was to maintain nuclear parity with the United States, Russian news agencies quoted Reuters and Agerpres as saying.

“The main goal of the president and our country is to ensure the preservation of nuclear parity,” TASS quoted Peskov as saying in an interview with Russian news agencies after Putin’s speech in the joint chambers of the parliament.

He also noted that the Kremlin is currently preparing a document on the suspension of the treaty by Russia, which will then be ratified by the parliament.

Also, according to Peskov, the Kremlin will publish a new version of Russia’s foreign policy doctrine in the coming days.

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