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US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are reportedly near signing an extension of the New START (Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms).
“We are very, very close to a deal,” an unnamed US official told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. “Now that the Russians have agreed to a warhead freeze, I do not see why we cannot work out the remaining issues in the coming days.”
There is no official confirmation from the US side, while the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that no official response had arrived by October 20th.
“We have received no official response from the United States to our Note dated October 16 which contains the proposal put forward by President Vladimir Putin to extend the New START Treaty for one year. We have noticed only some comments made by U.S. officials on social media platforms. Given contradictory reactions to the actual situation, we want to clarify.”
The clarification is this:
“Russia offers to extend the New START Treaty for one year and meanwhile is ready to jointly with the U.S. undertake a political commitment to “freeze” for the above-mentioned period the number of nuclear warheads that each side possesses.
This position of ours may be implemented only and exclusively on the premise that “freezing” of warheads will not be accompanied by any additional demands on the part of the United States. Were this approach be acceptable for Washington, then the time gained by the extension of the New START Treaty could be used to conduct comprehensive bilateral negotiations on the future nuclear and missile arms control that must address all factors affecting strategic stability.”
The only response the US has provided is this:
“We appreciate the Russian Federation’s willingness to make progress on the issue of nuclear arms control,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement on October 20th. “The United States is prepared to meet immediately to finalize a verifiable agreement. We expect Russia to empower its diplomats to do the same.”
While the Russian statement ceded ground to U.S. negotiators on warheads, it did not offer stepped-up verification protocols to ensure that it would abide by the freeze.
“Russia wants an unverified warhead freeze. It would be very difficult to monitor through intelligence collection,” tweeted James Acton, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Both Russia and the United States would presumably … continue to produce new warheads, while dismantling old ones.”
Trump’s top arms control negotiator, Marshall Billingslea, is expected to brief NATO allies on the developments by October 25th.
The Russia's statement is pretty rigid: "Our proposal can only and exclusively be implemented on the understanding that the United States will not advance any additional conditions with regard to freezing the arsenals."https://t.co/Xg4AaHIS49
— Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) October 20, 2020
I suspect one issue is Trump's hatred of Barack Obama — he can't bear to extend New START without something that makes it his agreement, not Obama's. I would expect Trump's base to happily swallow a non-verifiable political commitment as some sort of major victory for Trump.
— Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) October 20, 2020
Still, I hope they pull this off — even if it only kicks the can down the road a year. /END
— Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) October 20, 2020
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for an unconditional renewal of the deal, causing Trump’s National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien to urge Moscow to rethink its position “before a costly arms race ensues.”
Among the remaining issues that U.S. and Russian negotiators would need to hash out before such a deal is secured are the definitions of a warhead and how each side would verify compliance with the warhead freeze. Billingslea, the top negotiator, has called for a more rigorous inspection regime under a fresh New START agreement than in the original 2010 deal signed under the Obama administration.
However, it could be that the timing is key – Trump needs an urgent, and significant win before the presidential elections, Russia is aware of that, and this may be exploited.
MORE ON THE TOPIC:
HOW DESPERATE IS TRUMP FOR A ‘WIN’? Win what, a re-election, a trade war, a new Corona relief package, cause a new nukes deal is clearly not on his short list.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5zBwSMqBe0 Neutron weapon to be tested in space in 2023
They will upset Allah
Allah’s not upset by everything going on so far ? Must take a lot to get that being angry.
This reminds me of the conspiracy theory ‘Project Blue Beam’.
Haha the first conspiracy theory I have read on the internets. For me it reminds of a communist song in which children of different colors unite to ask the adults to cancel the neutronic bomb and fight for world peace :)
It looks more like a radio frequency quadrupole. :)
Russia should have stuck to her position instead of capitulating again in her continuous craving to be accepted as a “good guy” by western governments. Russia is setting a trend for herself as being weak that if Western powers stand firm on any point of issue Russia will back down sufficiently to save face yet put the western government view in the ascendency. Her lack of resilience has been noted by smaller nations who now challenge her on a regular basis with threats sactions and media smearing. Nations like UK, Sweden, Germany Norway, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine have become so emboldened that they are forever taking a swing when they can these days.
That’s a nochoicer for Russia. They had to cut 10% of wages after the sanctions imposed on 2015 and the Ruble lost half of its value. If USA manage to blick their trade with EU, bye bye capitalism, back to good ol’ times.
What I dislike about the Belt and Road Initiative is that it can open new waves of immigration from Asia into Russia and the rest of Europe. I don’t trust any government that seeks to establish excessive control over its citizens.
https://youtu.be/QzYQ11Ssivo?t=1291
Agree. In contrast with the over-control over the native population it seem like the migrants are not required papers or common sense. Also the Soros level elites promote the so called freedom of circulation of the people, to disguise their main agenda: the free circulation of their capital, without national restrictions/taxes.
Aside from advancing Neo-Liberal Capitalism to atrocious levels of insanity, there’s a deeper cultural issue at work. Those responsible want open borders for everyone and closed borders for themselves: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Idealism-Kalergi-destroy-European/dp/1913057097
The book ‘Culture of Critique’ by Kevin MacDonald https://archive.org/details/CultureOfCritiqueForNormiesPartIIIJewsAndTheLeft_201803, while a dry read, is well-sourced and goes to great length to prove his point: That Jews have been disproportionately involved in Communism (from the 1800s until the 1960s) and “Liberalism” (Critical Theory). After WW2, millions of Jews in eastern bloc countries were allowed to immigrate to Israel, and from there anywhere of their choosing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niiF8hCSrYQ&feature=emb_title
I liked one of the Amazon reviews of the book “This should be required reading for every coincidence theorist” I think I’m going to steal that. Indeed, the current aristicracy is very nocive, I can’t say if more or less than the old one but clearly ill intentioned. Btw I’m for freedom of bearing guns, just in case.
But China would never do that. I mean, it has no history of shipping workers and people to other nations, and creating Chinese enclaves. Why would you even suggest such a thing ? The Chinese have nothing but humanitarian intentions for everyone.
I was referring to people living in South and Central Asia, Turkey and the Middle East. There are already Chinese and Mongolian migrant workers in Russia, including immigrants. Many immigrants are from Central Asia and the south Caucasus, Muslims have the highest birth rate in all ex-Communist countries. Nearly all “humanitarianism” in the world is an oxymoron. White nations were the most humanitarian, largely due to Christianity. Even then their cultures have often been the most egalitarian. This is overshadowed at present by “woke” SJWs, jewish oligarchs and corporate elite.
I was referring to other people living in South and Central Asia, Turkey and the Middle East. There are already Chinese and Mongolian migrant in Russia and EU countries.
I find your failure to detect my sarcasm disturbing :)
I noticed your sarcasm. I was only specifying what I meant. To pontificate further on the subject of Critical theory, the video ‘The Academic Agent Joins Us for a Pint at The Jolly Heretic’ expands on it. ‘Dr. Edward Dutton: The Jolly Heretic’ on Youtube and Bitchute. Eccentric, but I like his critique of ‘Spiteful Mutants’.
False bravado. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMyFZvw6Cw0&feature=youtu.be&t=243
I wish I new what you were getting at here.
I know I wasn’t being clear, communication over the internet by text has a tendency to generate misunderstanding. While in this instance, I was quite vague.
I just think that the video contains a good message.
They will completely change their tone toward Russia and China after America loses super power status, unless they don’t mind their economies imploding and having to deal with anarchy. Such a situation would offer opportunity for Fascistic, white nationalist parties to take over and prevent their people from being replaced by foreigners.
Mass immigration would inevitably lead to economic collapse anyway, resulting in a massive culling of the native and immigrant populations. I suspect Russia would respond by sending diplomats, soldiers and humanitarian aid to fix the situation and install puppet governments in a number of east European countries.
Like America, Europe also outsourced most of its manufacturing capacity to China. In some ways, Germany is a small exception to the norm. Russia as you know hasn’t completely recovered from the Soviet collapse, corrupt bureaucratic elites also surrendered most of its former manufacturing capacity. This is why much of Europe would become reliant on Russia and China if America goes under.
” Such a situation would offer opportunity for Fascistic, white nationalist parties to take over and prevent their people from being replaced by foreigners. ” That would be a horrible development. Just terrible. Why would the indigenous people of Europe want that to happen ? The ” migrants ” have enriched the European nations so much. This would be a tragedy. Oh the horror !!!
LOL
i agree, i heard some theories that putin was replaced by a body double some time ago, i refused to believe it but now i am starting to think it is true for these reasons
When international security agreements end up in the electoral media meat grinder, you understand that the whole world is screwed up, this is matter that should be left in the hands of military and diplomatic experts, and a serious president should acknowledge this and let his best men do it.
i would not sign a single more deal with the US, how the hell can they be trusted at all???? is russia braindead or what?