Russia Ratifies START 2 Treaty

Members of the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, listen to state anthem during a session in Moscow, Russia, 26 January 2011. EPA/BGNES

The ratification of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 2) between the USA and Russia has been practically completed after the upper chamber of the Russian parliament approved the document.

All 137 senators in Russia's Federation Council voted Wednesday in favor of the ratification of START 2.

In late December 2010, both the US Senate and the the lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, approved the document.

The new START Treaty was signed in April 2010 by Obama and Medvedev but is viewed unfavorably by the Republican Party in the US Senate; some Republicans, who made gains in the Senate in the mid-terms in early November have been trying to delay the vote on the Treaty until the new Senate convenes in January 2011 when they would have been more likely to defeat the ratification.

The new Russian-US pact obligates both nations to cap their fielded strategic nuclear weapons to 1 550 warheads, while the number of deployed and non-deployed delivery vehicles must not exceed 800 on either side.

During the recent NATO Summit in Lisbon, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged the US Senate to ratify the new US-Russia Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty warning that any delay in that would hurt the security and stability in Europe.

NATO has welcomed "warmly" the ratification of START 2 by Russia in a statement of its Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Rasmussen went further by declaring that he hoped the ratification of START 2 will serve to facilitate talks between NATO and Russia for the inclusion of latter in the future US/NATO missile defense system in Europe.

At its Lisbon Summit, in the presence of Russian President Medvedev, NATO formally adopted the project for a US missile shield in Europe as its own, and extended an offer to Russia to join it.

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