In a speech on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he is suspending Russia’s participation in the New START nuclear treaty with the United States. He also warned Washington that Russia has put new ground-based strategic nuclear weapons “on combat duty.”

STARTS’s 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, according to a report by ABC News. 

Reuters reported the declarations came during Putin’s state-of-the-nation address. Putin also said that Russia should stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the U.S. does so, a move that would end a global ban on nuclear weapons tests in place since Cold War times.

Both the U.S. and Moscow claim that the other has violated the nuclear agreement by refusing to allow inspections in the other empire’s territory.

The treaty is intended to limit and reduce nuclear arms on either side, setting a limit of no more than 1,550 deployed warheads and 700 missiles. START I began in 1991, with New START signed under the Obama and Medvedev administrations in 2010 as a successor agreement.

As the U.S. president visits Poland, Russian President Vladimir Putin made his own speech in a parallel political universe.https://t.co/ZYWj4ZriGd

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) February 21, 2023

Unsurprising, much of Tuesday’s speech was about reaffirming Russia’s resolve in Ukraine at a moment NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) powers seem more deeply involved than ever. “Step by step, we will carefully and systematically achieve the aims that face us,” Putin said in the speech which came just ahead of the anniversary of the “invasion” on February 24, which will be Friday.

This may just be more rhetoric from the ruling class, or it could be a push to panic the masses into accepting a war. Either way, stay ready. The rulers starting these wars are not the ones who they will expect to fight and die in them, and that’s becoming very important to consider going forward.