SpaceWar.com reports: “Russia said Wednesday it would abide by limits on its nuclear weapons set out in a lapsed arms control treaty with the United States, so long as Washington did the same.

The New START agreement — the last treaty between the world’s top two nuclear powers — expired earlier this month, with Washington not responding to an offer by Russian President Vladimir Putin for a one-year extension of a cap on the size of each side’s nuclear arsenal.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was in no rush to start developing and deploying more weapons — backtracking on comments by his ministry last week that said Russia considered itself no longer bound by the treaty’s terms.

‘We proceed from the fact that this moratorium, which was announced by our president, remains in effect, but only while the United States does not exceed the outlined limits,’ Lavrov said in an address to Russia’s parliament…”