The lower house of the Russian parliament will start on Tuesday public hearings on the ratification of a new strategic arms reduction pact with the United States, a senior lawmaker said on Monday.
Russia and the United States signed the new treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive weapons in Prague on April 8. The document replaces the START 1 treaty, which expired in December 2009.
"A closed working meeting on the new START treaty will be held today, and tomorrow we will start open public hearings at 11.00 a.m. [07.00 GMT]," said Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the foreign affairs committee of the State Duma.
Kosachev said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and a group of high-ranking generals from the Defense Ministry would attend the hearings on Tuesday.
The new strategic arms 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 each side.
Under the deal, which will be valid for 10 years unless superseded by another agreement, strategic offensive weapons cannot be based on the territory of any third country.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama agreed that the ratification processes should be simultaneous.
Russia has said it would have the right to withdraw from the new treaty if a quantitative and qualitative increase in U.S. strategic missile defense significantly harmed the effectiveness of Russia's strategic nuclear forces.
MOSCOW, July 5 (RIA Novosti)
