MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax) - Russia's State Duma on Tuesday ratified the New START, a Russian-U.S. treaty on strategic nuclear weapons reductions signed last year.
The accord is now subject to approval by the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council.
The ratification bill, passed at its third and final reading in the lower house on Tuesday, was passed by a vote of 350 versus 96, with one abstention. The bill, which had needed a minimum of 226 votes to be approved, received the votes of the United Russia and Fair Russia deputies, with the Communists and Liberal Democrats voting against.
The New START, signed by the Russian and American presidents, Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, in Prague in April, sets a seven-year deadline - counting from the date of the treaty's entry into force - for the two countries to cut their strategic nuclear arsenals.
The ultimate numbers for various types of weapons set by the accord are 700 for deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and deployed heavy bombers; 800 for deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, deployed and non-deployed SLBM launchers and deployed and non-deployed heavy bombers; and 1,550 for warheads on deployed ICBMs, warheads on deployed SLBMs, and nuclear warheads counted for deployed heavy bombers.
Unlike the previous START, which was signed in 1991 and expired in 2009, the New START allows Russia to decide on the composition and structure of its strategic offensive armaments, including their ground mobile component.