MOSCOW, March 14 (AVN) - The State Duma lower house of parliament considered two drafts of the statement "Concerning Safe Navigation of Submarines" on Wednesday.
The first draft was submitted by lawmakers Valery Dorogin of the Russian Regions faction and Alexei Mitrofanov of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) faction. The second was elaborated by the Duma committee for international affairs and was introduced at the session by lawmaker Alexander Shabanov. The Dorogin-Mitrofanov draft received 22 votes in favour, while that of the international affairs committee was supported by 350 lawmakers.
"The State Duma supports the steps being taken by the Russian government towards prevention of incidents related to navigation of underwater vessels and believes that the passing of an international agreement in this sphere should become an important sector of activity of the states whose navies have submarines in the inventory," the final variant of the statement says.
The document stresses that the global community has no legal acts regulating actions of submarine commanders of various states related to security of their voyage and manoeuvring underwater. Absence of legislation in this sphere results in the growing risk of underwater collisions between submarines, lawmakers believe.