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By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

Senior lawmaker predicts swift ratification of
U.S.-Russian arms deal in Russian parliament

Associated Press, May 21, 2002

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

Associated Press, May 21, 2002

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