Returning warheads

The START Treaty will not be ratified simultaneously

Public parliamentary hearings on preparations for ratification of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) will begin today in the State Duma. Deputies will hear the opinions of high-ranking representatives. From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs there will be Deputy Minister Sergei Ryabkov, from the Ministry of Defense - a group of generals.

The presidents of Russia and the United States, Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, agreed to simultaneously ratify the treaty they signed on April 8 in Prague. However, the head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, said yesterday that the US Senate could begin to consider the issue of ratification “no earlier than September,” and therefore “there cannot be absolute synchronicity of the ratification procedure due to the constitutional process: our treaty must be ratified by two chambers , the Americans have one.” The Hill newspaper, published by the US Congress, also reports that due to the spy scandal between our countries, the treaty will not be put to a vote until the midterm congressional elections in November. By the way, earlier State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov stated that the State Duma intended to hold a plenary meeting on this issue in the fall.

And yesterday a working meeting of State Duma deputies was supposed to take place with a “group of wise men” - former Soviet and Russian diplomats who participated in the negotiations on the development of the previous START-1 Treaty, signed in 1991. But, taking into account the age of the veterans and the heat, it was decided to postpone it to a later date. The “group of wise men” includes, in particular, the last Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Alexander Bessmertnykh, and Ambassador Viktor Komplektov.

This same group includes several retired military personnel. One of the group members, on condition of anonymity, told Vremya Novostei that “although the number of carriers and warheads has been formally reduced, in reality everything is much more complicated and, from the point of view of strengthening security, does little for both us and the Americans”: “In particular, one a heavy bomber counts for one charge, although it can carry more. And the reduction of warheads on missiles occurs due to their removal from the warheads, but at the same time they will be stored, which does not exclude the possibility of their build-up in exceptional cases.” Nevertheless, our interlocutor believes: “Since the agreement was signed based on political considerations, then it is more profitable for us to ratify it. I have no doubt that the Americans will ratify it.”

Boris KAIMAKOV