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Russia suspends its role in nuclear missile treaty
Summary
Two days after Moscow's move on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the question of what came next hung over Russia–US relations.
What did it mean when Russia stepped back from a Cold War-era arms treaty? By 4 February 2019, the question was already live. On 2 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended Russia's involvement in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
The move was a response to the decision of the United States to withdraw from the treaty. Moscow also said it would now start developing new missiles.
The sequence was plain: Washington announced its withdrawal, and Russia answered by suspending its own participation and turning to new weapons development.
A label for the tension
The exchange fitted into a wider pattern of strained relations between Russia and the United States. Journalists and scholars have used terms such as Second Cold War, Cold War II and New Cold War for heightened geopolitical tensions of this kind, usually between the United States and NATO on one side and Russia or China on the other. Some commentators have argued against applying those labels to ongoing tensions.
For readers in Kyiv and across the region, the treaty's fate was part of the broader Russia–US relationship, in which each side blamed the other's actions for the next step. On 4 February 2019, the immediate facts were clear: a US decision to withdraw, a Russian suspension, and a promise of new missiles.
