TASS FACTBOX. On February 5, 2026, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) — the last agreement governing US-Russian strategic stability — expires. This is the first time since 1972, when the first US-Soviet disarmament agreements were reached, that the US and Russia, possessing the largest nuclear arsenals, will have no valid treaty to control them.
The New START Treaty was signed by the Russian and US presidents, Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, in Prague on April 8, 2010. Its official name is the Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (also known as New START or the Prague Treaty).
The ratification laws were signed by the president of Russia on January 28, 2011, and by the US president on February 2, 2011. The instruments of ratification were exchanged in Munich on February 5, 2011. The document entered into force to replace the Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START-1) of July 31, 1991 and the Treaty Between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Strategic Offensive Reductions (SORT) of May 24, 2002.
The New START Treaty stipulates that Russia and the United States reduce and limit (and subsequently not exceed) the number of deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and heavy bombers on each side to 700 within seven years, their nuclear warheads to 1,550, and their deployed and non-deployed ICBM and SLBM launchers, as well as heavy bombers, to 800. The treaty introduced the concept of "non-deployed" delivery vehicles and launchers, in other words, those not in combat readiness condition, but used for training or testing and not armed with warheads (START I covered nuclear warheads placed on deployed strategic delivery vehicles). Each party has the right to independently determine the composition and structure of its strategic offensive weapons within the total limits established under the Treaty. The United States reached its performance benchmarks in September 2017, and Russia - on February 5, 2018.
