Russia to keep missile test notices under Cold War-era deal: Russian diplomat

Russia will continue to give the United States advance notice about its missile tests despite suspending the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between the two countries a top Russian diplomat said ThursdayDeputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkovs statement reversed one he made Wednesday when he said Moscow had halted all information exchanges with Washington envisioned under the 2011 New START nuclear pact including missile test warningsBut Russia intends to stick by its pledge last month to keep notifying the US about missile tests in line with a 1988 USSoviet agreement Ryabkov saidRussian President Vladimir Putin suspended the countrys participation in the New START treaty last month saying Russia could not US inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Moscows defeat in Ukraine as their goal Moscow emphasised at the time that it wasnt withdrawing from the pact altogether and would continue to respect the caps on nuclear weapons the treaty setEarlier this week the US announced that Moscow and Washington have stopped sharing biannual nuclear weapons data as envisioned by New START US officials said Washington had offered to continue providing the information after Putin suspended Russias participation but Moscow told Washington it would not share its own dataAlso read Wall Street Journal journalist arrested on espionage charges in RussiaThe termination of information exchanges under the pact marked yet another attempt by the Kremlin to discourage the West from ramping up its support for Ukraine by pointing to Russias massive nuclear arsenalLast weekend Putin announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to the territory of Moscows ally Belarus Along with data about the current state of the countries nuclear forces routinely released every six months the parties to the New START treaty also exchanged advance warnings about test launches and deployments of their nuclear weaponsSuch notices have been an essential element of strategic stability for decades allowing Russia and the United States to correctly interpret each others moves and make sure that neither country mistakes a test launch for a missile attackRyabkov wouldnt say if the 1988 USSoviet agreement would cover all the missile tests that Russia was obliged to issue notices about under New STARTThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever