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Subject: Russian Legislature Ratifies START Pact; Further Arms Cuts Seen Likely to Be
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 05:01:45 EST
Message-ID: <28.1992Nov5.050145@AmeriCast.com>

Russian Legislature Ratifies START Pact; Further Arms Cuts Seen
Likely to Be Tough<By Fred Hiatt=Washington Post Foreign Service=

MOSCOW, Nov. 4 - The Russian parliament today overwhelmingly ap-
proved a treaty to eliminate a third of U.S. and ex-Soviet stra-
tegic nuclear weapons - but only after a debate revealing grave
anxieties about Russia's weakness and doubts about a follow-on
accord for more radical cuts in nuclear arms.

The debate also revealed serious questions about Russia's finan-
cial and technical ability to implement START (Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty). Gen. Boris Gromov, deputy defense minister,
acknowledged that the government has thus far found only a small
part of the funds it will need to dismantle weapons, and legisla-
tors spoke of nuclear warheads sitting untended in railroad cars.

The parliament voted, 157 to one with 26 abstentions, to ratify
START, the last major arms limitation treaty negotiated between
the Soviet Union and the United States.  The pact, signed by
President Bush and then Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev in
July, 1991 - and ratified by the U.S. Senate last month - would
reduce the number of strategic nuclear warheads in both arsenals
by about one-third during the next seven years, from a total of
23,000 to about 16,000.  Legislators said they wanted to keep
U.S.-Russian ties on track and, as one deputy said, present
President-elect Bill Clinton with something positive on the day
after U.S. voting.

But the debate on ratification today suggested that a far more
radical treaty, signed by Bush and Russian President Boris
Yeltsin this summer, may face stiffer opposition from Russian na-
tionalists and others concerned with this nation's declining
world position.

That "framework" agreement, which has yet to be translated into
detailed treaty language, calls for each side to reduce its stra-
tegic arms by a further 50 percent, to 3,000 to 4,000 warheads in
each arsenal. And while START targets weapons that in any case
would become obsolete within the next decade, the more radical
agreement would force Russia to give up some of its most modern
systems.

Legislators seemed to be aiming at that second treaty today when
they challenged Yeltsin administration officials about its lack
of a strategic policy and its lack of funds to implement arms
cuts.

"For years, Russia's economy was burdened by the military indus-
try," one deputy said. "Now, it will be burdened by the haste of
reduction."

S deputies also expressed grave concern at continuing U.S.
research into strategic defense, which some said could leave Rus-
sia at America's mercy - or, as one deputy said, "Our grandmoth-
ers will be wiped out before they can even wake up."

"A week after ratifying this treaty, the U.S. Senate appropriated
another $3.8 billion for SDI, while we don't have a single ruble
for defense," another conservative deputy said. "So as a result
of this treaty, the U.S. can climb to the second floor of its de-
fense structure, while we can't even get in the building." But
Gromov said the treaty would ensure parity between the two na-
tions and allow Russia's military to guarantee national security.

Several legislators also expressed concern that Ukraine might
renege on its pledge to give up the ex-Soviet nuclear weapons on
its soil. Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Berdennikov argued that
Russian failure to ratify START would make such a breach far more
likely. Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia - the nuclear
successor states to the Soviet Union - must join the United
States in ratifying START for it to take effect. Ukraine and Be-
larus have yet to do so.  In Kiev today, Ukrainian premier Leonid
Kuchma said he believes Ukraine also should ratify the START
treaty, special correspondent Chrystia Freeland reported. In an
interview, Kuchma said Ukraine also should ratify the Lisbon pro-
tocols, which specify that Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus should
give up their nuclear arms. But he strongly suggested that the
West should give Ukraine more in the way of money and security
guarantees in return. Ukraine already gave up its tactical nu-
clear weapons, he noted.

"But what did Ukraine get in exchange? This is what is troubling
the population and members of parliament," Kuchma said. "I am for
ratification, but if we go to parliament with nothing it will be
a fiasco, both for me and for the president."<02:21 11-05C9999--
---

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)