OREANDA-NEWS. Moscow voluntarily expanded the operation of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) to the hypersonic system Avangard. This was reported by Vladimir Yermakov, head of the Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control of the Foreign Ministry.

“This was done in a spirit of goodwill, despite a number of legal issues arising, including those which arise in relation to the unconstructive approaches of the USA to control over such systems. These issues have yet to be resolved. In general, we are open to discussing this issue in multilateral formats,” the politician said.

In mid-November, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Russia is ready to take into account the systems Avangard and Sarmat in START, a number of others do not fall under this document.

START concluded between Russia and the United States entered into force in February of 2011. Today it is the only existing arms limitation treaty between Moscow and Washington. It expires on February 5, 2021.