The Russian Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliamentvoted today to Russia’s participation in the New Start treaty is suspended on nuclear arms control concluded with the United States.

The vote took place this morning after Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday, Tuesday, that Russia would suspend its participation in the said treaty, while US President Joe Biden emphasized that he would continue to support Ukraine as the first approaches. anniversary of the Russian invasion.

The upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, is due to vote this afternoon after 14:00 (Greece time) to approve the suspension of Russian participation in New Start.

Russian officials also today blamed the United States and the West for this decision by Vladimir Putin.

Former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, who is now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said the move was a “long overdue” response to the United States and NATO, which he said had effectively declared war on Russia. .

“This decision was imposed on us by the war declared by the United States and other NATO countries against our country. It will have a huge impact on the world as a whole and on the United States in particular,” Medvedev said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Medvedev also called for the nuclear arsenals of Britain and France to be included in future arms control deals between Russia and the West.

Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin also blamed the United States for Moscow’s withdrawal from New Start.

“By ceasing to comply with its obligations and rejecting our country’s proposals on global security issues, the United States is destroying the architecture of international stability,” Volodin said in a statement.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees Russian diplomacy with the US on arms control, said today that whether the treaty would be brought back into force was up to Washington, while he also said Moscow was keeping a close eye on other nuclear powers. of NATO, Britain and France.

“We will obviously pay special attention to the line they will take and the decisions they will make in London and Paris, which can no longer, even hypothetically, be considered to be outside the Russian-American dialogue on nuclear arms control,” said Ryabkov, according to the TASS news agency.

He emphasized that at the moment there is no direct dialogue on nuclear issues between Moscow and Washington and that it is unknown when this dialogue will resume.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced yesterday, Tuesday evening, that it will continue to comply with the limits on the number of nuclear warheads it can deploy and that it is open to changing its decision.