Russia said Wednesday it was "no longer bound" by limits on the number of nuclear warheads it could deploy, as its last arms control treaty with the United States looked set to expire.
The New START agreement will end Thursday, formally releasing both Moscow and Washington from a raft of restrictions on their nuclear arsenals.
Campaigners have warned the treaty's demise could unleash a new arms race between the world's top nuclear powers, and encourage China to expand its arsenal.
"We assume that the parties to the New START treaty are no longer bound by any obligations or symmetrical declarations within the context of the treaty," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The Russian Federation intends to act responsibly and prudently," it added, but warned it was ready to take "decisive" countermeasures if its national security was threatened.
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered in September to keep abiding by the warhead limits in the treaty for a year, but he received no formal response from Washington, the Kremlin says.
US President Donald Trump said at the time it sounded "like a good idea" but there were no subsequent negotiations.
A Kremlin aide said earlier that Moscow was "open" to dialogue on the issue.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asked about the end of New START, appeared in no hurry to extend it, saying only that Trump would address the issue later.
"The president's been clear in the past that in order to have true arms control in the 21st century, it's impossible to do something that doesn't include China, because of their vast and rapidly growing stockpile," Rubio said.
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