Russia withdrew from nuclear transparency pact with US, but Biden administration still shares sensitive data.

This is not just bizarre behavior, it’s a reckless threat to American national security

The Biden administration has resumed the public disclosure of sensitive nuclear data as part of a treaty with Russia that Moscow pulled out of months ago, providing the country with critical information about America’s offensive capabilities at a time when Russian president Vladimir Putin is threatening to launch an atomic war in Europe.

• Defense experts warn that pulling out of New START is part of Putin’s plan to bolster a nuclear Russia—and lawmakers share their concerns.
• The State Department’s data dump is only the latest foreign policy issue to land the White House in the hot seat.
• Members of the House China Committee raised concerns earlier this month that the United States is ill-equipped to combat China.

But the Biden administration seems to be proud of its commitment to implementing New START, even as Tehran “is brazenly violating” the agreement.

Why is this a problem?

The release of the New START data could also prove useful to China, North Korea, and Iran, which are seeking to counter America’s nuclear forces while growing their own. This kind of thinking suggests that “it’s time for a serious purge of our national security and diplomatic bureaucracy. No one should ever gain decision-making authority absent any experience in the real world, divorced from the government teat.”

What are the consequences?

Defense hawks on Capitol Hill said they are baffled by the Biden administration’s decision to publish sensitive nuclear data at a time when Russia is not only hiding its own capabilities but also threatening to start an atomic war in Eastern Europe. “The U.S. is making concessions while our adversaries and enemies proliferate their nuclear arsenals,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Washington Free Beacon. “Worse, the Biden administration seems to be proud about it. This is not just bizarre behavior, it’s a reckless threat to American national security.”

What can be done?

Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser and military analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said the Biden administration’s commitment to New START will not moderate a leader like Putin. “Transparency might sound good in theory, but exposing secrets isn’t going to moderate Putin,” Rubin said. “To the contrary, it will only help him plan as he seeks his own nuclear dominance.”

“Suspending New START is just the latest in a larger trend of Russia’s increasing reliance on nuclear weapons,” Heather Williams, an atomic weapons analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a recent policy analysis. “Vladimir Putin is telling the world who he is. He is a nuclear bully, attempting to use nuclear weapons to deter conventional Western support and intervention.”

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