REBOOT

Russia and the USA plan to sign a new agreement on reducing strategic offensive arms on 8 April. The two sides have finally managed to iron out "technicalities", although the talks were quite complicated.

According to the document, the RF and the USA will reduce the number of warheads deployed by a third - from 2,200 to 1,550 - and the number of nuclear-armed missiles and heavy bombers to 700. The document also envisages a new system of mutual inspections and control. The agreement will remain in force for 10 years.

However, experts think this is hardly a reason for joy. Although the agreement does attempt to restore a global system of control over arms, it does not lead to a real reduction of nuclear arms in the USA and Russia. The actual reduction will be very insignificant. It must also be remembered that America's main allies in NATO will retain their previous level of armament. 

Meanwhile, the new agreement on the reduction of offensive arms has already been labelled "the US president's first foreign policy success". According to La Tribune, "by securing the signing of the deal, the US president has finally justified his Nobel peace prize". The Financial Times said that the new agreement "will strengthen the US stance in arms control summits". This is particularly important ahead of the Washington conference on nuclear security and a conference on revision of the non-proliferation treaty. 

Many observers believe that the essence of the strategic offensive arms agreement is that Moscow and Washington will continue to keep each other's nuclear arsenals under control. The determination of the White House leader has made the world safer because mankind is still sitting on a "powder keg" capable of destroying the whole world. The new treaty is a message to the international community about what exactly poses the biggest threat to the planet in the 21st century. The fact that Russia and the USA, which have almost 95 per cent of the world's nuclear weapons, have reached compromise gives everyone hope that a global catastrophe will never take place and that weapons of mass destruction will one day become unnecessary.  

Meanwhile, the world is trying to bring North Korea and, especially, Iran to reason as the two have no intention of reversing their nuclear programmes, despite the incessant pressure. This inevitably leads to an arms race in their regions. From this standpoint, the new agreement also serves as a signal to Pyongyang and Tehran, although this is unlikely to lead to any dramatic change … 

The document has become the first disarmament agreement to be signed since the end of the "cold war". Thus the USA and Russia have finally "rebooted" their relations. The Guardian writes, however, that "the USA and Russia appear to be moving towards reluctant cooperation". But even this will make the international political climate sounder. 

How soon the new agreement becomes effective now depends on ratification of its wording by the Russian and US parliaments; approval by the Senate is not guaranteed at all. For that Obama will have to talk to the republicans, which appears to be quite a tall task.

Besides, Moscow still has questions for Washington regarding the US anti-missile shield in Europe. Western media report that the fate of the new agreement was determined by a phone conversation between Obama and Medvedev in late February. The Kremlin was insisting that limitations on ballistic missile defence be introduced into the agreement, but the White House said that was impossible and even threatened to pull out of the agreement. Obama agreed only to general wording in the agreement, acknowledging the mutual relationship between offensive and defensive arms. As a result, the Russian Foreign Ministry is now saying that the agreement "will contain a legally-binding provision on the interconnection between offensive and defensive arms and on the ever-increasing importance of this interconnection to the reduction of strategic offensive arms". However, the deputy US secretary of state for arms control and international security, Ellen Tosher, says that "the agreement does not in any way limit the creation of the US ballistic missile defence system". It is not clear yet who is right here. According to The New York Times, Obama and Medvedev have decided to put aside all their differences and said together in English: if you want everything to be done properly, do it yourself… 

It must also be remembered that the present level of certain conventional arms, mainly developed in the USA, is close to a nuclear bomb. Russian experts think that Washington has absolute domination in this sphere and Moscow is highly unlikely to match it in the near future.