Russia has suspended the New START nuclear arms treaty with the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

But he emphasised that Russia was not leaving the treaty yet, only suspending its participation in it for the time-being.

He blamed the suspension on the West, saying relations had degraded and that it was impossible currently to allow American inspections of Russian strategic nuclear sites.

Putin’s decision was announced on Tuesday as he gave an annual state-of-the-union speech in Moscow, days ahead of the one-year anniversary of the invasion into Ukraine.

He also accused the United States of considering restarting nuclear bomb tests and threatened that Russia would hold them too if that happened.

That will be interpreted as a veiled threat in relation to the war in Ukraine — experts have feared Russia might conduct a nuclear bomb test to intimidate Kyiv and its Western allies. Putin ordered Russia’s military to prepare the possibility to hold a test.

“Some actors in Washington are thinking about testing nuclear weapons,” he said. “The defense ministry and RosAtom must prepare also to conduct nuclear tests in case of necessity. But Russia will not conduct it first.”

Abcnews