The following is the April 14, 2025, Congressional Research Service In Focus report, U.S.-Russian Nuclear Arms Control: Overview and Potential Considerations for Congress.
From the report
The United States has periodically sought to advance its national security interests through the negotiation and conclusion of nuclear arms control agreements with its adversaries. In January 2025 remarks, President Donald Trump advocated potential discussions with Russia and China concerning nuclear weapons reductions. Following these remarks, Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled some potential openness to discussing arms control.
Congress plays an important role in arms control, which is implemented pursuant to treaties or agreements negotiated by the executive branch. The Senate considers providing advice and consent to the ratification of treaties and the confirmation of executive branch nominees for positions in the Department of State (DOS), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy, and the intelligence community. Congress also authorizes and appropriates funds for, as well as provides oversight of, those U.S. government agencies that negotiate, implement, monitor, and verify compliance with treaties and agreements.
Background
During the Cold War and in its aftermath, the United States and the Soviet Union (which Russia and other Soviet republics dissolved in 1991) sought to minimize the costs and risks of nuclear competition and improve so-called strategic stability. Following the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States and the Soviet Union created a “hotline” to communicate in a nuclear crisis, which, along with some later risk reduction agreements sought to reduce dangers of an accidental or inadvertent nuclear war.
After the Soviet Union achieved rough parity in strategic nuclear forces with the United States, and began to deploy ballistic missile defenses, the two countries engaged in Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT). The 1972 SALT I Treaty and Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty negotiated by the Johnson and Nixon Administrations and the 1979 SALT II Treaty negotiated by the Nixon, Ford, and Carter Administrations resulted in some limits on strategic nuclear forces and ballistic missile defenses. Subsequently, the Reagan Administration concluded the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which verifiably destroyed all ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles of intermediate ranges. The Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations negotiated the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), which resulted in the “largest arms control reductions in history,” according to DOD. In 2002, the George W. Bush Administration concluded the Moscow Treaty reducing U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear forces to between 1,700 and 2,200 deployed warheads.
The executive branch has also at times withdrawn from arms control agreements, including in 2002 from the ABM Treaty and in 2019 from the INF Treaty, when it deemed these accords to no longer be in the U.S. national security interest.
New START
The United States and Russia are currently parties to the 2010 New START treaty, under which the two countries verifiably reduced their strategic nuclear forces to 1,550 deployed warheads on 700 deployed strategic delivery vehicles (intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs); submarine-launched ballistic missiles; and strategic bombers). In 2021, the United States and Russia exercised a New START provision to extend the Treaty until February 2026. However, since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has declined to conduct or host New START-mandated on-site inspections or participate in consultations.
In February 2023, President Putin announced that Russia would “suspend participation” in New START, citing concerns about UK and French nuclear weapons and also Western efforts to achieve Russia’s “strategic defeat” in the war in Ukraine. Russian officials have stated that Russia would observe Treaty limits, but would suspend data exchanges under the Treaty. The DOS has called Russia’s suspension “legally invalid” and announced countermeasures. The DOS has also since expressed concerns about Russia’s compliance with New START in congressionally-mandated public annual reports.
Download the document here.
