MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax-AVN) - The council of the State Duma lower house of parliament on Tuesday considered the bill "Concerning Ratification of the Russian-U.S. Agreement on Strategic Offensive Reductions."
"The council decided to send the proposals concerning ratification of the treaty to the Russian president. The proposals are signed by lower house chairman Gennady Seleznyov," a source in the Duma administration told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"Observers note the synchronism of Russian and U.S. lawmakers in the work on the ratification of the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty," the source said.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations approved the Strategic Reductions Treaty on February 6. The treaty was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush in May 2002.
Duma defense committee chairman Andrei Nikolayev told Interfax-AVN that the ratification bill was drafted by the special working group set up late last year. The group includes lawmakers, representatives of the government (Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, Atomic Energy Ministry, etc.), and officials of the presidential administration, Nikolayev said.
A military diplomat told Interfax-AVN that the bill consists of five articles fixing obligatory provisions for implementation of the treaty.
The first section states the necessity to maintain the potential of Russian strategic nuclear forces at the level sufficient for ensuring national security, taking into account the dynamics of missile defense system development by the United States. The section also says that priority funding should be given to the strategic nuclear forces and measures to preserve and develop necessary laboratory, testing and production facilities.
The second section determines obligations of all branches of power in relation to the treaty's implementation. Within three months from the treaty's putting into effect, the president is to submit to both houses of parliament the main parameters of the strategic nuclear forces development program and determine the main spheres of international activity in the field of strategic Offensive weapons and anti-missile defense with the goal to reinforce strategic stability and ensure Russia's national security.
While considering the state budget, the houses of parliament are to participate in making decisions on the funding of R&D in the sphere of strategic Offensive weapons development, procurement, modernization and scrapping. They will also work out necessary federal laws.
The document outlines circumstances under which Russia may withdraw from the treaty. Among them are violation by the other party of obligations under the treaty, and deployment of a missile defense system capable of bringing down the efficiency of Russia's strategic nuclear forces or making a decision in the military development sphere capable of causing a threat to Russia's supreme interests by another nation, even if it is not a member of the treaty.