MOSCOW. Feb 1 (Interfax) - The law ratifying the new Russian-American strategic arms reduction treaty (START) took effect on Tuesday after it was published by the Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
A bill on ratification was upheld last week by both houses of parliament and signed into law by the Russian president.
"This federal law shall take effect the day it is officially published," says the decree on START ratification, signed by President Dmitry Medvedev.
The treaty was signed in Prague on April 8 2010 and it reflects Russia and the United States' plans to cut their strategic arms arsenals down to the levels set - 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, sea-based ballistic missiles and heavy bombers; 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers for ICBMs, sea-based ballistic missiles and heavy bombers, and 1,550 warheads on deployed ICBMs, sea-based ballistic missiles and heavy strategic bombers.
Unlike a similar treaty, signed by the former Soviet Union and the U.S. on July 31 1991, the new agreement allows Russia to define on its own the composition and structure of its strategic offensive armaments, including the land-based mobile component.
The law says that the START treaty will be enforced with the observance of a set of terms, among them the maintenance of the Russian strategic nuclear forces potential at a level required to guarantee Russia's national security, including by developing, testing, manufacturing and deploying new types of strategic offensive weapons with advantages in breaking missile defense.