START

START: Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
Bilateral treaty between US and USSR on limitation and reductions of strategic offensive arms; signed on July31, 1991 and came into force on Dec 16, 1994. It barred its signatories from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads atop a total of 1,600 ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and bombers.
Implementation:
USSR disintegrated 5 months after signing this treaty. The newly formed states of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have disposed of all their nuclear weapons or transferred them to Russia; while the U.S. and Russia have reduced the capacity of delivery vehicles to 1,600 each, with no more than 6,000 warheads. START I expired December 5, 2009. On March 17, 2009, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signaled that Russia would begin a "large-scale" rearmament and renewal of Russia's nuclear arsenal. President Medvedev accused NATO of pushing ahead with expansion near Russian borders. As of May 4, 2009, the United States and Russia began the process of renegotiating START. Both sides agreed to make further cuts in the number of warheads they have deployed to around 1,000 to 1,500 each