There will be no rush in the lower house of the Russian parliament over the ratification of a strategic arms reduction deal, a Russian lawmaker said on Tuesday.
The treaty was signed on April 8 in Prague, replacing the START 1 treaty that expired in December 2009. The document was submitted to the U.S. Senate on May 13 and to the State Duma on May 28. The Russian and U.S. presidents have agreed that the ratification processes should be simultaneous.
Speaking as usual on behalf of all Russian MPs, Konstantin Kosachyov, chair of the State Duma international affairs committee, said they wanted to understand how ratification hearings were proceeding in the U.S. Senate.
"The last committee session on the issue at hand will take place on Thursday and then we will take a timeout and will not take any action until it becomes clear what is happening in the U.S. Senate," he said in an interview with the RT TV channel.
He said there was "no serious reason for not ratifying the document" since it "does not grant any one-sided advantages to either party."
The new pact stipulates that the number of nuclear warheads is to be reduced to 1,550 on each side, while the number of deployed and non-deployed delivery vehicles must not exceed 800 on either side.
MOSCOW, July 6 (RIA Novosti)
