Senate Ratifies Arms Treaty With Russia

The Senate finally ratified the second U.S.-Russian Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty on Friday, ending a five-month delaying action by conservative Republicans that had threatened Russian approval of the historic accord.

The vote was an overwhelming 87 to 4. California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats, voted with the majority to ratify the treaty.

The accord, negotiated during the Ronald Reagan administration and signed in 1993 by then-President George Bush, is one of the pillars of the post-Cold War arms-reduction efforts by the United States and Russia. President Clinton has supported the agreement.

The Senate was to vote on the treaty last August, but Republicans held up action in an attempt to force the administration to accept proposals by conservatives to revamp the nation’s foreign aid programs.

If ratified by Russia, the accord would launch the two countries into a second series of major reductions in their nuclear arsenals beyond those required by the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which was signed in 1991 and later ratified by Congress and the Russian parliament.

START I required the two sides to cut the number of nuclear weapons they can deploy to between 6,000 and 8,000 warheads each, from 10,000 to 12,000 before. Under START II, those limits would be slashed to between 3,000 and 3,500 apiece by 2003.

At the height of the Cold War, each side had deployed between 10,000 and 12,000 warheads. Arms-control officials said that both countries are ahead of schedule in dismantling their nuclear weapons.

The action now shifts to Moscow, where Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin is expected to try to push the treaty through the new, more conservative Duma--the lower house of parliament--before an April meeting among leaders of Russia and Western nations.

Clinton, who praised the Senate’s vote, talked by telephone with Yeltsin for 40 minutes, asking for and receiving a pledge that Moscow will remain committed to economic and political reforms, despite its recent shift to the right.

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White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry told reporters that Yeltsin pledged to work hard to persuade the Duma to ratify the START II treaty. Clinton was “satisfied that President Yeltsin’s commitment remains the same,” McCurry said.

Arms-control advocates hailed the Senate action Friday as a milestone. Spurgeon M. Keeny Jr., president of the Arms Control Assn., called the vote “a major development that now puts pressure on the [Russian parliament] to act.”

The congressional delay had raised fears in some quarters that Russia might reject the START II treaty. Moscow had already become alarmed at efforts by the administration and Congress to revise early arms agreements.

Officials have become even more worried since Yeltsin, in what some have termed a preelection bid, began replacing many of his top aides and Cabinet ministers with those favored by Russian nationalists, who have resented his pro-Western policies.

Despite Yeltsin’s assurances Friday, most analysts believe that the Russian president will face an uphill battle in his efforts to persuade the Duma to ratify the START II treaty, particularly since the legislative body now is more conservative than it was a year ago.

Some experts predict that ratification may have to wait until after the Russian presidential election, scheduled for June. The Russians may also demand assurances that the United States does not plan to deploy a ballistic-missile-defense system soon.

The Senate vote on Friday came without any floor debate after Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), in an effort to push the Senate to a brief recess, won agreement on a procedure to take a vote and allow senators time to make speeches later in the evening.

The resolution incorporated changes made by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which serve notice that the United States will not begin actually carrying out the reductions specified by the treaty until Russia has ratified the accord.

Unlike previous such agreements, the START II treaty does not set a detailed timetable for the reductions in each side’s nuclear arsenal but merely states that the cutbacks must be “sustained throughout” the next several years and fully completed by 2003.

Although START II was signed in January 1993, ratification was delayed for a variety of reasons, ranging from a U.S.-Russian disagreement over Ukrainian disarmament in 1994 to the Clinton administration’s early failure to press quickly for Senate approval.

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The latest delay came last August after Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, decided to hold the treaty hostage to his proposals for reorganizing the State Department--an impasse that was not resolved until last month.

The treaty ran into more trouble this month when Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee sought to use it as a bargaining chip in an effort to prevent a presidential veto of the defense authorization bill.

Clinton did veto the defense bill, however, and a revised measure--which the White House has said the president will sign--won approval from the full Senate late Friday.