Committees of the Russian State Duma, the lower house of the country’s Parliament, are set to discuss the U.S.-Russian Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty next week, Nikolai Bezborodov, deputy chairman of the Duma defense committee said Tuesday (see GSN, Dec. 10).

The international affairs and defense committees plan to discuss the treaty’s military and political aspects, Bezborodov said.  The defense, security and industry committees will discuss the treaty’s technical aspects, he added.

“I am sure the treaty will be ratified by the Duma without any special problems,” Bezborodov said (Ivan Novikov, ITAR-Tass, Dec. 10, in FBIS-SOV, Dec. 10).

International Affairs Committee Chairman Dmitry Rogozin said Tuesday that he and Andrei Nikolayev, chairman of the Defense Committee, have asked the Defense and Foreign ministries as well as the Kremlin to clarify several points in the treaty.  The date of ratification will depend on when the ministries respond to the request, Rogozin said (Interfax, Dec. 10 in FBIS-SOV, Dec. 10).

Meanwhile, members of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Parliament, have said they believe that the treaty will be easily ratified by all of the Parliament, ITAR-Tass reported.

“The chances that the State Duma and the Federation Council will ratify the treaty are quite big,” said Federation Council speaker Sergei Mironov. 

The Moscow Treaty is an important achievement in Russian diplomacy, said Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Federation Council’s international committee.  “The document confirms the Russian and U.S. obligations as the depository countries of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and enhances the nonproliferation regimes,” he said (Lyudmila Yermakova, ITAR-Tass, Dec. 10 in FBIS-SOV, Dec. 10).

For further information, see:

U.S.-Russia Nuclear Reduction Treaty Text (U.S. State Department)

Bush Announces Moscow Treaty

U.S. State Department Fact Sheet on Moscow Treaty

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