Context: Russia has said it sees minimal chances of extending the New START treaty with the United States – their last major nuclear arms pact – as it does not accept conditions set out by Washington.

Analysis

New START

• The New START accord, signed in 2010, limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads that Russia and the United States can deploy and due to lapse in February 2021.
• It is a bipartisan process of verifiably reducing U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals.
• Recently, the U.S. and Russia terminated the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty that had limited the United States and Russia from fielding land-based missiles with a range between 500 and 5,500 kilometres, both conventional and nuclear. 
• The INF Treaty was the first pact to include intensive verification measures, including on-site inspections.
• Now only one major bilateral agreement, New START, limits the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals.