President Putin threatened the first return to nuclear testing by Russia since the Cold War in announcing that the country would abandon its arms control treaty with the United States.
In an often fiery two-hour state of the nation address in Moscow, Putin declared that Russia would suspend its participation in the New Start treaty and accused the West of starting the war in Ukraine as a provocation against his country.
“They want to deal us a strategic defeat and are meddling with our nuclear facilities,” Putin told members of both houses of the Russian parliament, with guests including wounded veterans of the conflict in Ukraine. “In this context, I have to declare today that Russia is suspending its participation in the treaty on strategic
