MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. The decision on resuming Russia’s participation in the treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START) will be made by the president, according to a draft bill submitted by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Russian parliament’s lower chamber on Tuesday.
"The decision on resuming Russia’s participation in the treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms is to be made by the president of the Russian Federation," reads the document, uploaded to the State Duma’s electronic database on Tuesday.
The federal law will come into force after being officially published.
The New START treaty between Russia and the US stipulates the reduction of the two countries’ nuclear arsenals. The decision to suspend Moscow’s participation in the document was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his State of the Nation Address delivered earlier on Tuesday. He stressed that before resuming discussions on further work within the framework of the treaty, Russia would like to clarify how the arsenals of other NATO nuclear powers - Great Britain and France - would be counted in the treaty alongside the US’ nuclear potential.
The Kremlin said later that Moscow had not notified its Washington colleagues about the decision beforehand. The US administration replied that it would closely follow the situation and was ready to discuss limitations of strategic weapons with Russia.