The Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO supports the treaty on a reduction in offensive weapons that has to be signed during the Russian-American summit in Moscow on May 23-26, 2002.

This statement was made by Deputy Chairman of the party and Deputy Head of the Duma Defence Committee Alexei Arbatov. According to Arbatov: "A further reduction of strategic offensive weapons meets new security requirements and the new spirit of cooperation between Russia and the USA after the tragic events of September 11, 2001."

Arbatov also stated that the new treaty did not put stringent restrictions on the US military plans and corresponds to their strategic programme, specifically regarding storage of the dismantled nuclear warheads. "But it is still better when these warheads are stored, than remain on the carriers in constant minute readiness to launching," said Arbatov. "Regarding Russia, he noted that the new treaty would in no way inhibit its strategic programme for the impending decade and did not prohibit it from adopting any reasonable and economically real measures in response to the US course in offensive and defence strategic weapons."

At the same time, Arbatov thinks that the new deal has some drawbacks. "These drawbacks should be eliminated through further negotiations via the signing of additional documents which would determine complete understanding between the parties regarding the methods for cutting strategic nuclear warheads, the rules for counting strategic weapons and measures of audit and control over observation of the agreements," noted Arbatov.

Arbatov also stated that the Yabloko faction of the State Duma of the Russian Federation would not support the resolution on the Russian-American treaty proposed by a group of deputies. "This resolution sets a number of conditions that have to be subject to special negotiations, for example, on tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, NATO's expansion to the East and on the stationing of nuclear weapons in space," stressed Arbatov.

Commenting on the critical remarks on the Russian-American treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive weapons, Arbatov noted that "diplomacy is always the art of letting someone have your way, and an agreement reflects in the end the balance of the economic and military-technical potential of the parties."

At the same time, Arbatov thinks that Russia's positions in this case were weakened "due to the subjective and erroneous decisions of the Russian military political leadership regarding military policy, military construction and the distribution of financial resources rather than due to objective imbalance between the parties."

"A number of erroneous decisions adopted in 2000-2001 regarding the development of Russian strategic nuclear weapons, as well as indecisiveness in implementing military reform that envisages, in particular, the distribution of resources in favour of technical provision for the Armed Forces considerably weakened the basis of Russia's diplomacy," noted Arbatov.

See also:

Arms Control

Associated Press. Senior legislator predicts rapid ratification of U.S.-Russian arms deal in Russian parliament. May 21, 2002.