Former Pentagon adviser: Moscow didn't leave New START, it suspended it

The fact that Russia has suspended its participation in the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) instead of withdrawing from it is "very important". Retired US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor said this after the lower and upper houses of the Russian parliament approved a bill to suspend Russia's participation in the New START treaty, a decision announced by President Vladimir Putin during the his address to the Federal Assembly earlier this week.

“Keep in mind that he suspended the treaty (…) the word 'suspend' suggests that at some future day he might be willing to reinstate it. We should consider this fact as positive, frankly,” Macgregor said, referring to Putin's decision. The former US Army colonel, who served as a Pentagon adviser under former President Donald Trump, added that "it's in our best interests to restore the treaty at some point and I think (Putin) has clarified which."

"We have enough explosive power between the US and Russia to destroy the planet; end of discussion," Macgregor stresses. In this vein, the former Pentagon adviser also argued without elaborating that "Russia has been betrayed by us and he (Putin) has achieved a record in proving it."