On Wednesday, the Federation Council is ready to consider a law on suspending Russia’s participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), if the relevant bill comes from the State Duma. This was stated by the head of the committee of the Federation Council on international affairs Grigory Karasin on Tuesday, February 21.
“If we get it from the Duma, of course, it will be considered. We have scheduled a meeting of the committee tomorrow, and there will be a plenary meeting. There must be a certain promptness in the decision. We are ready for this promptness,” he said in a conversation with TASS.
Earlier that day, in his State of the Union address, President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was suspending participation in the New START Treaty. He stressed that this is precisely the suspension, and not the withdrawal from the treaty. At the same time, the head of state said that before returning to the discussion of START, the country must understand how to take into account the nuclear arsenals of France and Great Britain.
Then the Russian leader submitted to the State Duma a law on the suspension of Russia’s participation in the New START Treaty. According to State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin, the draft law will be considered on Wednesday, February 22, at a plenary session. A decision will be made on it without delay, and immediately after that the project will be sent to the Federation Council.
The agreement between the Russian Federation and the United States on measures to reduce and limit strategic offensive arms was signed on April 8, 2010 in Prague. The document replaced the 1991 START Treaty. Upon entry into force, it also replaced the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty.
This START agreement was worked out on a parity basis in accordance with the principle of equal and indivisible security and provided for real, verifiable and irreversible reductions in strategic offensive arms.
