U.S. Senate Presses Start

The discussion of the Russian-American Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) concluded on Tuesday with an acceptance of the resolution to suspend the debates, for which not only Democrats but a significant group of Republican senators voted. This opened up the path to ratification of the treaty.

The Senate’s ratification of START has important significance for Russia. The document not only does not require our country to make serious reductions of our nuclear missile weapons, but on the contrary, it grants the opportunity to build them up to the standards attached to the document: 700 launchers, plus 100 in the arsenals and 1,550 nuclear warheads. According to official data, as of December 2010 the Russian Federation numbered 611 strategic nuclear delivery vehicles with 2,769 warheads on them. Strategic rocket forces numbered 375 guided missile systems, capable of carrying 1,259 nuclear warheads. The navy has 12 strategic missile carriers. Ballistic missiles, with which they are equipped, carry 576 nuclear warheads. 76 heavy bombers, armed with 844 long-range cruise missiles with nuclear weapons, are included in the body of strategic aviation.

If you take into account that almost half of this “collection”, especially from among the ground-based deterrents, will be sent into retirement in future years, then it becomes understandable that START does not hinder but only helps us renew strategic forces for deterrence. It is with a smaller quantity of warheads, but in this case that is not crucial. In addition, START gives Russia and the U.S. a chance to establish a real partnership, relying not on declarations but on a genuine trust for one another.

The treaty, called “New START” in the U.S., was the subject of lively and at times fierce discussion over six days in plenary sessions of the Senate. Republicans tried to delay ratification until the new session of Congress, when their position will be stronger. However, Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid reminded his colleagues that the treaty was signed eight months ago and underwent detailed discussion at the Senate committee level. According to him, the final part of ratification had already been postponed 13 times and could not wait any longer.

67 senators, including 11 Republicans, voted for the resolution to end the debates, while 28 voted against it. Before this the representatives of the Republican faction proposed to insert several amendments into the START text. Included among them were wording denying the interconnection between strategic offensive and strategic defensive weapons (Anti-Ballistic Missiles), a proposal to increase the number of mutual control inspections by three times (from 17 to 54) and a rise in the ceiling for the number of strategic weapons carriers (from 700 to 720 for each country). The White House noted that these amendments were killers, that these attempts to “fix” an already-signed treaty would return both sides to the negotiation table again.

The White House warned the senators that a failure to ratify could undo the “reset” in American-Russian relations, impede collaboration of the two countries in resolving important international problems and in general have an ill effect on trust toward the U.S. in the world. Appealing to Republicans, the president alluded to the example of former Republican president Ronald Reagan and the support of START by President George H. W. Bush.

On the other hand, Obama took steps to meet his opponents. He sent Republican senators a letter with a promise to realize all four phases of the European component of the U.S. Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and to proceed with large-scale modernization of the country’s nuclear strength. Before the vote the president conducted telephone negotiations with senators, and Vice President Joseph Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton personally tried to persuade legislators at the Capitol. As a result, such influential Republican senators as Bob Corker, Lamar Alexander, Lisa Murkowski and others came out in support of ratifying the treaty.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry, called the vote historic. He expected that a minimum of 70 senators would vote for ratification of the document since there remained three votes in “reserve” for proponents of the treaty who were absent (one Republican and two Democrats). Ratification of the document, taking into account the illness of one senator, required 66 votes. In the meantime, it was expected that Republicans would achieve a reflection of their viewpoints in the ratification resolution that, however, would not give them the necessary strength.

American media congratulated President Obama for his great success in advance. As the New York Times writes, this will be the second big victory in several days in the President’s relations with Congress. Before this the White House gained a legislative repeal on the prohibition of accepting homosexuals into military service.

At the same time, the newspaper makes note of the high cost that the administration is paying for ratification of the treaty. In particular, in light of the program it adopted for modernization of nuclear strength and the development of ABM defense, it will become more difficult for Barack Obama to take new steps in the area of control over armament. And it will be more difficult to gain support in Congress. This concerns the prospect of ratifying the treaty on a comprehensive ban on nuclear testing and conducting negotiations with Russia on reducing tactical nuclear weapons.

At 23:00. the Interfax agency reported that, on the evening of December 22, the U.S. Senate ratified the Russian-American treaty on a further reduction and limitation on strategic offensive weapons.