Russia to Keep Missile Test Notices    03/30 06:17

   Russia will continue to give the U.S. advance notice about its missile tests 
despite suspending the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between the two 
countries, a top Russian diplomat said Thursday.

   MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia will continue to give the U.S. advance notice about 
its missile tests despite suspending the last remaining nuclear arms treaty 
between the two countries, a top Russian diplomat said Thursday.

   Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov's statement reversed one he made 
Wednesday, when he said Moscow had halted all information exchanges with 
Washington envisioned under the 2011 New START nuclear pact, including missile 
test warnings.

   But Russia intends to stick by its pledge last month to keep notifying the 
U.S. about missile tests in line with a 1988 U.S.-Soviet agreement, Ryabkov 
said.

   Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended the country's participation in 
the New START treaty last month, saying Russia could not U.S. inspections of 
its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly 
declared Moscow's defeat in Ukraine as their goal.

   Moscow emphasized at the time that it wasn't withdrawing from the pact 
altogether and would continue to respect the caps on nuclear weapons the treaty 
set.

   Earlier this week, the U.S. announced that Moscow and Washington have 
stopped sharing biannual nuclear weapons data as envisioned by New START. U.S. 
officials said Washington had offered to continue providing the information 
after Putin suspended Russia's participation, but Moscow told Washington it 
would not share its own data.

   The termination of information exchanges under the pact marked yet another 
attempt by the Kremlin to discourage the West from ramping up its support for 
Ukraine by pointing to Russia's massive nuclear arsenal. Last weekend, Putin 
announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to the territory of 
Moscow's ally Belarus.

   Along with data about the current state of the countries' nuclear forces 
routinely released every six months, the parties to the New START treaty also 
exchanged advance warnings about test launches and deployments of their nuclear 
weapons.

   Such notices have been an essential element of strategic stability for 
decades, allowing Russia and the United States to correctly interpret each 
other's moves and make sure that neither country mistakes a test launch for a 
missile attack.

   Ryabkov wouldn't say if the 1988 U.S.-Soviet agreement would cover all the 
missile tests that Russia was obliged to issue notices about under New START.