The New Start agreement with the United States on strategic nuclear arms cuts favors Russia more than the now-expired START 1 deal did, a top Russian lawmaker said on Friday.
Konstantin Kosachyov, the chairman of the State Duma's International Affairs Committee, called the fact of the agreement a breakthrough, and said the U.S. Senate's ratification of the treaty had not changed anything within the document.
Their Duma will ratify this as a no-brainer of gaining an edge over the United States.
I was worried that the START agreement gave away nuclear goodies to the Russians in exchange for getting Russian cooperation on non-nuclear issues. I don't think that there can be any argument that this is the proper interpretation of the treaty.
Not that I worry that Russia will try to exploit their advantages to launch a first strike on us--so the point isn't to accuse the Obama administration of strategic suicide. But after all the statements made that the treaty provisions themselves are good, the treaty was clearly a concession for other, nebulous gains we are supposed to reap from "reset."
Maybe the administration is right that this will work out. I'm not reassured that Russian-US relations are on a firm enough foundation to predict what a future Russia will believe.
