President Joe Biden said what all of us were thinking when he called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to pull out of a key nuclear treaty a “big mistake.” Biden was asked about Putin’s suspension of the New START Treaty before a meeting with a group of Eastern European nations known as the Bucharest Nine in Warsaw as he seeks to shore up alliances at the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Putin made the announcement in his state of the nation address on Tuesday, sending mixed messages as he simultaneously asserted Russia would not strike first with nuclear weapons. The Russian president’s move marks yet another disturbing development for opponents of nuclear proliferation, as the U.S. and Russia had agreed in 2021 to extend the treaty for five more years. Biden did not address the issue in his speech to the Bucharest Nine, instead praising the resilience of the Ukrainian people and touting a surprise visit he made to the country on Monday.
