MOSCOW. Nov 3 (Interfax) - The State Duma Committee on International Affairs is due to decide today to repeal its earlier recommendation to the house to ratify the strategic arms reductions treaty (START) so as to start studying this process again, committee head Konstantin Kosachyov told Interfax.
"I think today we will repeal the recommendation to the State Duma adopted by the committee on July 8 to ratify the New START Treaty so as to reconsider this matter," Kosachyov said.
Russian parliamentarians and military experts will need two weeks to analyze the recommendation with a whole host of reservations made by the Senate commission on foreign affairs, he said.
"I have great concerns about the ratification by the U.S. Senate of this agreement, considering the results of the mid-term elections. If the previous Senate as a lame duck fails to do so in the next couple of weeks, chances of this document being ratified by the new Senate will be radically lower than they have been until now," Kosachyov said.
At the same time, early results of the November 2 elections to both houses of the U.S. Congress absolutely coincide with the forecast that most mandates will be ceded by Democrats to Republicans, he said.
"It will be much more difficult for President Obama to conduct his foreign policy termed a 'reset' as far relations with Russia are concerned," Kosachyov said.
"My pessimism extends only to the prospects for the START treaty ratification, which happened to coincide with the U.S. election campaign. As for other topics concerning the U.S.-Russian relations, such as Afghanistan, the Middle East, countering international terrorism, drug trafficking and other problems, these are outside the risk zone," the MP said.