Duma Signs New START Treaty with the USA

Moscow – Law enforcement in the Duma: on Tuesday the Russian lower house ratified the new nuclear disarmament treaty with the United States of America. In a third and final reading, the Parliament in Moscow voted 350-96 for the historical treaty. On Wednesday the Russian upper house, or Federal Council, must come to agreement.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Kremlin chief Dmitry Medvedev had worked out the treaty last year in Prague. It can be enacted only with ratification by the two legislative bodies in power.

The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) is the most important agreement on nuclear disarmament by the two greatest nuclear powers in 20 years. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty just before Christmas.

The START treaty stipulates that both states reduce the total amount of stationed nuclear warheads from 2,200 to about 1,550 within the next seven years. The carrier deployed stations should be limited to 700 each.

Russia appended the document, like the USA, with an explanatory addendum. According to it, Moscow only wants to adhere to the treaty if the security of the country not be threatened by new arms initiatives from the USA. Due to earlier U.S. plans for a missile defense shield in central Europe, Russia had withdrawn its ratification of the 1993 START 2 treaty.