Moscow-Sana
The head of the International Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma, Leonid Slutsky, confirmed the Duma's readiness to begin work on extending the Russian-American Treaty to Limit Strategic Offensive Weapons.
Russia today quoted Slutsky as telling reporters today: "We are ready to start work to ensure the legislative process for extending START III treaty immediately."
For his part, Sergey Tsekov, a member of the International Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, which is the supreme chamber of the Russian Parliament, said that the council is ready to consider documents for ratification of the treaty extension as soon as possible.
He added, "We are ready to do this at every moment, and if needed, I do not rule out that we will do it tomorrow," referring to a regular general meeting to be held by the Federation Council on Wednesday.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin and the American Joe Biden confirmed during a phone call earlier today that they were satisfied with reaching an agreement on extending the "START 3" treaty, as the two parties will complete, within the coming days, all necessary operations to ensure the continuation of this important international legal mechanism in the field of mutual limitation. Nuclear missile arsenals.