The Federation Council unanimously approved a bill to suspend Russia’s participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which became known on Wednesday, February 22.
As Grigory Karasin, the head of the Federation Council committee on international affairs, said the day before, this decision should have a certain promptness.
The suspension of Russia’s participation in START was announced by President Vladimir Putin during his address to the Federal Assembly on February 21. Then the head of state submitted a legislative initiative to the State Duma, where the draft was adopted unanimously.
At the same time, the head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, allowed a revision of the decision on START, provided that the West is aware of its responsibility for the destroyed architecture of global security.
The agreement between the Russian Federation and the United States on measures to reduce and limit strategic offensive arms was signed on April 8, 2010 in Prague. The document replaced the 1991 START Treaty. Upon entry into force, it also replaced the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty.
This START agreement was worked out on a parity basis in accordance with the principle of equal and indivisible security and provided for real, verifiable and irreversible reductions in strategic offensive arms.