| MOSCOW - Despite nationalists' grumbling that
Russia caved in to the United States to strike a nuclear arms
deal set to be signed during this week's presidential summit,
a senior lawmaker on Tuesday predicted its trouble-free ratification
by the Russian parliament.
Alexei Arbatov, a deputy head of the parliament's defense affairs
committee, said that the lower house dominated by pro-government
moderates will quickly rubber-stamp the deal. "There are
no doubts that any treaty signed by the president will be easily
approved," Arbatov said at a news conference.
The accord which is to be signed by President George W. Bush
and Russian President Vladimir Putin during their summit in Moscow
this week foresees cuts in each country's nuclear arsenals to
1,700 to 2,200 warheads from the approximately 6,000 that each
is now allowed.
The U.S. administration, initially reluctant to codify the nuclear
arms reductions, has agreed to Moscow's push for a formal treaty
but brushed off Russian complaints about the Pentagon's plan to
stockpile some of the decommissioned weapons rather than destroy
them.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov met with lawmakers Tuesday
to gather support for the government's policy toward the United
States, describing the nuclear deal as the best compromise that
Russia could hope for.
"It was the most that we could get," Ivanov said. "The
main achievement is that we have managed to preserve the negotiation
process."
Ivanov also said that the new treaty would free Russia from constraints
on its strategic nuclear forces contained in previous agreements,
such as the ban on the deployment of land-based missiles with
multiple warheads - the kind of weapons preferred by the Russian
military for cost reasons.
Ivanov said that a declaration to be signed by the two presidents
during the summit would reflect the "limited character"
of the conceived U.S. missile defense and the U.S. pledge that
it wouldn't threaten Russia.
Ivanov also sought to allay lawmakers' concerns about U.S. military
deployment in Central Asia for the war in Afghanistan, saying
that Moscow would try to "determine the timeframe for their
presence." "This issue can't leave us unconcerned,"
he said.
Russia's Communists and other hardliners have assailed the nuclear
deal and Putin's support of the deployment of U.S. forces in the
ex-Soviet republics as national treason. Communist Party chief
Gennady Zyuganov said Tuesday that the party leaders would meet
this weekend to condemn the treaty and prepare a motion of no-confidence
in the government - a symbolic move given the Communists' weak
presence in the lower house.
Arbatov insisted that Russia negotiated the best deal it could
after the Russian military had announced plans to cut its nuclear
forces even without any agreement with the United States.
"When you try to bargain without having anything to offer,
it's hard to get any concessions from your partner," Arbatov
said.
He said that the United States' consent to formalize cuts in
a treaty was a victory for Russia given the fact that the Pentagon
could afford having as many warheads as it wanted, unlike the
cash-strapped Russian military.
Meanwhile, Ivanov and U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton
met in Moscow on Tuesday to put the finishing touches on the arms
agreement and other security documents due for signing at the
summit, the Foreign Ministry said.
See also:
Arms
Control
Grigory Yavlinsky. The Door
to Europe is in Washington.
Obschaya Gazeta, May 16, 2002
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