Biden says Putin made a ‘BIG MISTAKE’ in suspending vital nuclear arms control treaty: Tensions between world’s two biggest arsenals rise as US president meets European allies

President Joe Biden on Wednesday condemned Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend Russian cooperation with the last remaining US-Russia nuclear arms control treaty, further raising tensions between Washington and Moscow.

Putin announced this in his state of the nation address on Tuesday when he railed against the West.

A day later, Biden was asked for his answer just before a meeting with Eastern European allies in Warsaw.

“Big mistake,” was her terse reply.

Biden condemned Putin’s announcement of the New START treaty before sitting with leaders of the Bucharest Nine Nations, a group of nations that make up NATO’s eastern flank

Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world – inherited from the Soviet Union – and until the COVID pandemic was subject to constant inspection and scrutiny by the US, whose arsenal is second.

Monitoring was part of the New START treaty, signed in 2010 and valid until 2026.

It limits Moscow and Washington to deploying up to 1,550 strategic warheads and no more than 700 long-range missiles and bombers.

But the deal was already in trouble. Last month, US officials accused Moscow of violating the agreement by refusing inspections.

They said privately they expected Russia to announce its withdrawal from the treaty, but did not expect the decision to come so quickly.

Speaking to lawmakers, Putin said Russia was withdrawing over US aid to Ukraine.

William Alberque, director of strategy, technology and arms control at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Reuters that “both sides could instantly go from 1,550 deployed strategic warheads to 4,000 — which could happen overnight.”

Security analysts also said it could end mutual deterrence and allow other major powers such as China, India and Pakistan to develop their own arsenals.

Biden will be received by Polish President Andrzej Duda and Slovak President Zuzana Caputova at the presidential palace in Warsaw on Wednesday

At the end of Tuesday’s speech, in which he blamed the West and global “elites” for the war on Ukraine, he made it clear that he would ban the United States from inspecting sites containing some of the 5,977 nuclear warheads it has owned by the Kremlin.

Republican Congressman Mike Rogers, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said it was “no surprise” that Putin had suspended attendance and called for a response.

He said the US should deploy additional nuclear forces and speed up planning in case Putin crosses borders.

Marshall Billingslea, Donald Trump’s Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, told DailyMail.com that Russia and China will now deploy more nuclear warheads.

“President Biden needs a strong but measured response, including support for expediting dealing with a submarine-launched cruise missile and procuring additional B-21 bombers and Columbia submarines,” he added.

Both countries, which have 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, have so far complied with the terms of the treaty by adhering to limits on the number of deployed nuclear warheads.

Russia launched a hypersonic missile, the Zircon, from a submarine last year and has deployed the nuclear-capable Avangard hypersonic missiles since late 2019. The Avangard can fly up to Mach 27 while changing course and altitude

Biden’s comments came at the end of a four-day visit to Poland and Ukraine.

There were talks on Wednesday with leaders of the Bucharest Nine, a conglomeration of countries in the easternmost parts of the NATO alliance that have put themselves on the front line of Western defense after Ukraine’s Putin annexed Crimea in 2014.

“When Russia invaded, it wasn’t just Ukraine that was put to the test. The whole world faced a centuries-long test,” he said during a speech at Warsaw’s Royal Castle on Tuesday night, the anniversary of the invasion.

Europe has been put to the test. America has been tested. NATO has been tested. All democracies have been put to the test.’