Biden administration to seek five-year extension on key nuclear arms treaty in first foray with Russia
President Biden is seeking a five-year extension with Russia on the only remaining treaty limiting the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals just days before it expires, said two senior U.S. officials.
At the same time, his administration is preparing to impose new costs on Russia pending a newly requested intelligence assessment of its recent activities. The officials said Biden is ruling out a “reset” in bilateral relations with Moscow as many new U.S. presidents have done since the end of the Cold War.
“As we work with Russia, so, too, will we work to hold Russia accountable for their reckless and aggressive actions that we’ve seen in recent months and years,” said a senior U.S. official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive security matter.
The decision to seek a five-year treaty extension, which Russia supports but the Biden administration hadn’t settled on until now, reflects the rapidly approaching deadline for Washington to renew the New START pact Feb. 5, the officials said.
President Donald Trump tried to conclude a shorter extension with Moscow in the final months of his presidency, but he failed to reach an agreement after his nuclear envoy spent months trying to persuade China to join the accord before dropping that demand.
Letting the treaty expire would allow Moscow and Washington to deploy an unlimited number of nuclear-armed submarines, bombers and missiles in what many experts fear could spark a nuclear arms race and further exacerbate U.S.-Russia relations.
“New START is manifestly in the national security interest of the United States and makes even more sense when the relationship with Russia is adversarial,” the senior U.S. official said.
As the Biden administration informs Moscow of its terms for an extension, the president will order Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to provide him a full intelligence assessment of Russia’s alleged interference in the 2020 election, use of chemical weapons against opposition leader Alexei Navalny and bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, officials said.
Biden is also asking Haines for an assessment of the massive cyberattack on federal agencies and departments related to the SolarWinds software breach, which many analysts and government officials have blamed on Russia. The request for the intelligence assessments will go out this week, said the officials.
“We will use these assessments to inform our response to Russian aggression in the coming weeks,” another senior official said.
Biden’s plans for potential punitive actions toward Russia at the outset of the administration is unique among his recent predecessors, all of whom attempted to turn a new page with the Kremlin in the hopes of encouraging a more productive relationship.
“This will be the first post-Soviet U.S. administration that has not come into office vowing to forge a warmer relationship with Russia,” said Angela Stent, a senior intelligence official on Russia during the George W. Bush administration.
Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told lawmakers Tuesday that sanctions passed by Congress to target Moscow will be “extremely helpful in being able to impose . . . costs and consequences” on Russia.
Blinken said New START, which restricts the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 and deployed strategic delivery systems to 700, provides the United States “tremendous access to data and inspections” and is “certainly in the national interest to extend.”
Not all of Biden’s aides have supported the idea of a five-year extension for the treaty.
Victoria Nuland, a longtime Russia hawk whom Biden will nominate to be the No. 3 official at the State Department, wrote in Foreign Affairs over the summer that the United States should only seek a one- or two-year renewal in the hopes of retaining leverage over the Kremlin.
“Washington should not grant Moscow what it wants most: a free rollover of New START without any negotiations to address Russia’s recent investments in short- and medium-range nuclear weapons systems and new conventional weapons,” she wrote.
But U.S. officials noted that Trump’s special envoy, Marshall Billingslea, tried to secure a shorter extension with his Russian counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, but failed to make a deal, leaving a critical agreement dangerously close to expiration.
“We’re aware that the last administration engaged in negotiations on an extension of a New START for months but was unable to come with an agreement,” said a senior U.S. official. “We also understand there have been various proposals exchanged during those negations, but we’ve not seen anything to suggest that at any point an agreement on the terms that have been reported was in place.”
Arms control advocates have also opposed holding out for a shorter extension.
“There is no evidence that Russia is desperate to extend the treaty or that a shorter-term extension would make Russia more likely to negotiate a follow-on agreement,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.
“A straightforward five-year extension would provide the new president with an early win and positive momentum, help restore U.S. credibility on arms control issues, and create the potential for more ambitious steps to reduce the nuclear danger and move us closer to a world without nuclear weapons.”
U.S. officials said they hoped a quick renewal of New START could provide a foundation for new arms control arrangements, potentially including China.
“We believe it’s absolutely urgent for China to take on greater responsibility, transparency and restraint for its nuclear weapons arsenal,” said a senior U.S. official.
The Biden administration is not interested in holding an extension of New START hostage to China, however, the U.S. official said, especially given that Moscow’s arsenal “is at least 10 times the size of China’s.”
In October, Russia expressed a willingness to freeze its overall number of nuclear warheads during talks with Billingslea — a move Biden officials said was a “positive development” they hoped to build on even though details on verification had not been hammered out.
The Biden administration’s ability to work with Russia on arms control while confronting it on a range of other issues will be tested almost immediately.
On Sunday, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, called for the immediate release of Navalny, the Russian opposition leader detained in Moscow. Navalny had just returned home after receiving medical treatment in Germany following a poisoning attack this summer. Russian authorities put out a warrant for his arrest, claiming he had violated the terms of a previous sentence related to embezzlement charges.
“Mr. Navalny should be immediately released, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable,” Sullivan wrote on Twitter. “The Kremlin’s attacks on Mr. Navalny are not just a violation of human rights, but an affront to the Russian people who want their voices heard.”
(c) Washington Post
“Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told lawmakers Tuesday that sanctions passed by Congress to target Moscow will be “extremely helpful in being able to impose . . . costs and consequences” on Russia.”
Words are all very fine, but useless unless accompanied with action. If this is how this admin will treat Muscovy, things are looking good, but we have been here before.
LikeLiked by 6 people
Rome wasn’t build in one day 😜
LikeLiked by 4 people
How are you going to build Rome when your ass is wide open for Putin? It only took one day for Biden to spread his cheeks wide open. You feel better now?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Where did T* had his head for 4 years if not up in the ass of Putin?
To your other question about God on my last day. Since it’s been between 8,000 – 12,000 Gods during our history that has been worshiped I have not yet found the right one 😉
LikeLiked by 4 people
I worship Jesus and Odin. The latter leads the army of the dead and tortured, ready for payback. 😇
LikeLiked by 4 people
I like Odin. When your dead and end up in Valhall you continue to fight. If killed you wake up the next morning to a new life 🙂 What I fear most from Christians heaven is to meet my first wife again 😀
LikeLiked by 3 people
you’re 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
LikeLiked by 5 people
Now i know why you fled to Sweden. 😂
LikeLiked by 5 people
I’ve had an apartment here for 20 years now in May, I always had a plan to move here when I did retire 😉
LikeLiked by 5 people
Well, more to see in Sweden than in Denmark, except for the women. 😂 I like to go fishing in Sweden. I also like the air quality. In Århus and Copenhagen one needed to wear a mask already before Corona. 😂 Not to mention the fact that thousands of tons of gutter-water were dumped near our famous beaches. A toilet is cleaner than Egå. 😡
LikeLiked by 5 people
Based on your posts, meeting your ex-wife, assuming she had faith in Christ, is not something you need to worry yourself with.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Odin!
LikeLiked by 4 people
Here he is, our dear God 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yep. The one and only. 😀
LikeLiked by 2 people
You will. Use the scientific principle that you can’t make something from nothing. That’s why the founding fathers of the USA (people you hate) refer to him as the Creator. It’s a good start.
And there is only one Creator. Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Jews and even the Seattle spaghetti worshipers agree on that.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Even if you reject all scientific explanations, such as evolution that describe the origin and development of natural phenomena, I prefer to listen to that. As Stephen Hawking wrote in his last book: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going”
LikeLiked by 5 people
That’s one man’s opinion but he already assumes the universe exists. It’s the old chicken and the egg theory. A weak theory. He assumes the chicken is already there and there was no birth. You cannot create something with nothing.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Don’t try the Kalam cosmological argument on me 😀
LikeLiked by 4 people
For your relief, although an NRA member and islamophobe, i dislike christian fanatism and anti-abortionists. I lived in Holland for a long time, most people there are atheists. I think i will believe once i saw what to believe. The world is a horror. What God would allow this? Odin never claimed to be the ultimate God, but the savior of his followers. I’d say that’s the side i’ll be on. 😉
LikeLiked by 3 people
I have no idea what that is. I am a scientist by trade and historian by choice. I cannot ignore either which is the favorite sport of those that believe in nothing.
LikeLiked by 3 people
There are serious problems with all attempts at a reasonable cosmology when they attempt to deal with the beginning. All of them have serious problems.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There wasn’t any room for Trump. You had already filled that hole with your head.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You seems to have forgot the meeting between Trump and Putin in Helsinki, 2018. Look at Putin’s smile, he has the American president exactly where he wanted him to be 😊
LikeLiked by 3 people
“The officials said Biden is ruling out a “reset” in bilateral relations with Moscow as many new U.S. presidents have done since the end of the Cold War.”
If true, then at least Biden isn’t doing everything wrong.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Hannity has already found enough to blame Biden for after one day in office
LikeLiked by 3 people
Hardy, har, har!
But, I fear for our land under this fossil!
LikeLiked by 5 people
No, I’m not afraid of Biden and his administration. I like that it’s a mirror of the american people, not only white, 70 years old billionaires and retired white military officers. For people afraid of socialism or communism, their political views are still to the right of most conservative parties in Europe. He is too old, I would have preferred someone on the age of Kamala, but maybe he’s the one with enough political experience to lead, and a personality that we need right now after 4 chaotic years. He’s not only the President of the US, he’s expected to be the leader of the world, and what happens in the US will have an influence for all of us! Time will show 😉
LikeLiked by 4 people
If there is any Conservative party that is to the left of the 2021 version of the Dems I’d eat my hat! The last time the Dems had a conservative-leaning leader goes way back to JFK: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you……’ etc. I’m sure you know it. A great speech. All Dems following him were complete and utter crud.
LikeLiked by 3 people
The DimoKKKRat Party is the party of scum. They’ve taken over as the corporatist’s party. The GOP establishment are little more than DimoKKKRats in all but label only. They’re all a bunch of worthless leftists who will drag the country back down in the sewer we started to escape in ’16. JFK was to the right of the current GOP establishment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Trump is still in charge. All will be good. As KKK-buddies both Joe and Donny will be a great team. I mean Dems from Minnesota showed how to treat criminal black folks. 😇 Seriously, we need unity now, since COVID-19 won’t spare anybody because of his political affiliation.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Donnie has lost 4 banks and his tax-lawyers in the last weeks, I’m not sure if he will find time outside the court in NY to care for politics 😉 But at last he found one lawyer willing to represent him during the impeachment trial that will start next week. I’ll guess he was paid up front, Donnie don’t like to pay his bills 😀
LikeLiked by 4 people
The banker’s actions may be illegal. Not surprised by the tax lawyers. His tax life is entirely different and he has changed domicile so he needed new tax lawyers anyway.
LikeLiked by 1 person
But now it’s Borussia Dortmund and Haaland on TV 😉
LikeLike
As a former Schalke fan, adoring Ebbe Sand, i can only show maximum aversion towards Prussian Dortmund. 😈
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s mostly to see Haaland playing. He would be perfect in Premier League! He’s father was playing for Leeds and he was born there in 2000
LikeLiked by 2 people
An unknown fact. When Danmark won the EM in 1992 i was supportive of Holland. I was watching the final in a pub in Rostock and german skinheads threatened me until they realized i’m not a sucker. 😀
LikeLiked by 2 people
neither China Biden or the Kamel will lead anything. They are simply puppets. The secret service nick for Biden is “Marionette.” It fits quite well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
Knut, you’re simply being a deranged clown. The only thing you’re talking about is what you think is happening in your fantasy land.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve already seen what he is been doing and this forces me to say that I must stay with my comment … I fear for my country.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Very good reason to. There is no place one can go to escape the damage China Biden and his party of extremists will do to the country and the world. he’s already started sending troops back into Syria, and there will be other places we were withdrawing from that he will renew the “commitment” that his Neocon handlers want.
LikeLiked by 2 people