But for the START talks to start in earnest, it took a bit of "glastnost" and the presidency of Mikhail Gorbachev. The 1980s was also the time when the U.S. and the Soviets were in the throes of the arms race, and Reagan's controversial Strategic Defense Initiative caused particular friction with Moscow. So the START I treaty -- Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty -- wasn't inked until July 31, 1991; just five months later, communism came crashing down and the Soviet Union ceased to be. But Russia and the newly independent states of Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan -- which got rid of all their nuclear weapons -- have kept with the treaty. The U.S. and Russia were barred from exceeding 6,000 deployed nuclear warheads and 1,600 delivery mechanisms -- intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and air bombers.
This was followed by the START II treaty signed by Presidents George H.W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin in 1992 to ban MIRVs -- a collection of nuclear warheads transported by one ballistic missile. This had been seen as a way to get around missile limits, plus the MIRV wielded a deadlier impact. However, the Duma would not ratify the treaty for eight years and the agreement was never put into effect.
The START I treaty was set to expire on Dec. 5, 2009, but remained in effect past that date as the U.S. and Russia negotiated. One deal-breaker for Russia was the deal that President George W. Bush signed with Poland and the Czech Republic to enact an Eastern European missile defense shield, with interceptors and radar to protect against potential missiles fired from Iran or North Korea. But Russia saw the shield plans in the former Soviet states as incendiary and hotly contested them. Upon taking office, President Barack Obama scrapped the shield plans and announced sweeping plans for nuclear disarmament, angering many in Europe who saw the move as easily giving into Russia. This move may have not even been so much about the START treaty renewal as hoping to get Russia on board with foreign policy initiatives such as pressuring Iran to curtail its nuclear weapons program, which has not happened.
