Putin says 'no big deal' for Russia if US declines to extend nuclear warhead limits

MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia was developing new strategic weapons and it would not be critical for Moscow if the United States declined to extend the warhead limits set out in a nuclear arms treaty that expires next year.

He said it would, however, be a shame if nothing remained of the arms control framework between the two countries, which have by far the world's biggest nuclear arsenals.

Speaking to reporters at a summit in Tajikistan, Putin said an arms race was already in progress.

Russia has said it is willing to voluntarily extend the warhead limits defined in the New START treaty, which expires in February, if the United States is willing to do the same. Washington has not yet formally agreed to the proposal.

"Will these few months be enough to make a decision on an extension? I think it will be enough if there is goodwill to extend these agreements. And if the Americans decide they don't need it, that's not a big deal for us," Putin said.

He added that Russia was continuing to develop and test new-generation nuclear weapons.

"We're ready to negotiate if it's acceptable and useful for the Americans. If not, then no, but that would be a shame, because then there would be nothing left in terms of deterrence in the area of ​​strategic offensive weapons."

For the second time in a week, Putin referred to the possibility that other countries, which he did not name, might carry out a nuclear test - something only North Korea has done this century. He has said that Russia would also perform a test if this happens.

Security experts say a test by one country would have a knock-on effect, prompting other nuclear powers to do the same, raiing geopolitical tensions further from their current, already high, levels.

"There's always a temptation to test the effectiveness of the same fuel that's been in missiles for many, many years. All of this is being simulated on computers, and experts believe that is sufficient, but some of these same experts believe repeat tests are necessary," Putin said.

"So some countries are thinking about it; as far as I know, they're even preparing, and that's why I said that if they do it, we'll do the same."

That would be good from a security perspective, but bad from the point of view of curbing the arms race, he said.

"But in this same context, extending the New START Treaty for at least a year is a good idea."

(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya, Olesya Astakhova, Maxim Rodionov, Anastasia Teterevleva, Filipp Lebedev and Lucy Papachristou; Writing by Mark TrevelyanEditing by Andrew Osborn)